The Knights
by 13en-writes-all
Summary: Modern Fantasy AU: in the wake of a devastating terrorist attack, a group of untrusted, multi-racial special forces soldiers is called in to prove themselves. Now faced with the challenge of finding out who's behind the attack, they must overcome the prejudice that comes with their races, and work to stop more attacks. Rated M for violence, language, and later chapters...
1. Scorched Earth

**Part 1 – Scorched Earth**

I've always wanted to know what a modern world full of fantasy creatures would look like in today's world. This is my version:

Fire, the discovery of which spawned the beginning of all creation.

Most people say that mankind's greatest invention was the wheel and the alphabet, others say it was the battering ram and gunpowder.

Gunpowder spawned single-shot weapons, then multi-shot guns, then revolvers, then magazine-fed weapons.

Eventually, the face of the world changed: empires rose and fell, new countries were formed, and others were destroyed. Cities were demolished and rebuilt. Races gained power and lost power. Eventually a centralized government on the North American Continent was formed: the United American Confederacy.

The United American Confederacy is a united country that controls most of the North American Continent, save for the Canadian Union, and the Caribbean. It is inhabited by every species across the Earth: humans, elves, etc. inhabit the urban cities and towns. The dwarves, gnomes, and Goliaths share the mountains. While species like the Dragonborn inhabit the plains, following the call of nature like the Native Americans of centuries gone by.

The South American continent is primarily inhabited by Tabaxi and Yuan-ti who watch over the lungs of the world, and the cities and towns of the various countries of South America.

Europe is governed by the Council of European Royals: a collection of one member from every last royal lineage that has ruled the countries of Europe since the middle ages.

Russia is run by an all-powerful Council that holds a very tight grip on all Russian lands, afraid that once they let it go, it'll be gone forever.

China is run by a council of a united conglomeration of species, with humans being at the top of the council, while others are considered to be members of the conglomeration, but being as humans make up a little over 50% of the conglomeration, the other species' voices are often muffled.

Even with unity among the species of the world, prejudice is still rampant among the countries of the world.

The armies of the world still hold true to many of their beliefs of keeping many races separate as it might be a threat to discipline and military cohesion. Thing is, that's what they said when it came to humans, people of African descent and people of Caucasian descent working together. The military wasn't designed to be an instrument of social change. The military might oppose it at first, but the unit will get over it. Beat that shit with a stick.

More of that later, right now, what do you say we get to the action?

The mountains of Southern Afghanistan, filled mostly with Lizardfolk and Kobolds who have taken on either a yellowish-brown color or a yellowish-orange color. Most of them were peaceful, but some of them were concealing AK-type weapons underneath their cloaks as they were sympathetic to the insurgents.

The insurgents stationed there had very little to say about the fact that some of them had to wear Oakley goggles or shemaghs when sandstorms hit.

Of course, the insurgent fighters that were currently patrolling the mountain above the opium field had adapted, having used glasses they stole from local stores and wrapped them in leather.

The AKs they were carrying were all left-over weapons from the Afghan-Soviet war left there by human and elvish C.I.A. operatives.

They had patrolled the area for several months and knew the area like the back of their hands.

"You think they'd use some of the money they make off this opium to give us some decent goggles," the one on the right asked.

"You'd think that," the one on the left said, "But they'd probably squander it, or give it to the higher-ups."

The third one said nothing as he reached up to wipe the dust off his goggles which looked very similar to swimming goggles.

They had adapted to the mountains well, only using what they had to make sure they were always prepared, repairing their weapons with their knives or with rocks they flattened with other rocks.

It was then that they saw something very distinctive through the sand whipping in front of them: a large, lumbering figure sitting on a rock, sharpening a very large blade.

As they approached they noticed the outline of the figure's ears well: an elf. The uniform he was wearing was unknown to them: it was black, save for the navy vest, and the navy shemagh. The knife was a well-known design: it was a steel kukri that had a leather-wrapped handle.

One of the fighters quietly snuck up to him, and put the barrel of the AK to the back of the elf's head, "Who are you," he asked over the whipping wind of the sandstorm, "What are you doing here?"

"Doing my job," the elf said as he continued sharpening his blade, "Same as you."

"You're an American aren't you," the fighter asked as he pushed harder against the elf's skull.

"Maybe I am," the elf said, "Maybe I'm not."

"Hey," the fighter called, "What do you think we should do," there was no answer, "Jamil? Ahmed?"

The man turned around to see two people standing behind his comrades: on the right, a large individual was standing behind Jamil, removing the blade of either a Ka-Bar or an M9 bayonet from the side of his neck.

The individual standing behind Ahmed was about 5'7 and removed a seax from his chest.

The fighter raised his rifle, only to have his right arm severed by a large tomahawk.

As he screamed and dropped to one knee, he looked up to see someone that was at least six-foot-six standing over him holding a tomahawk that would have been used like a war-ax to a human.

Before he could continue screaming, the giant raised the ax and embedded the head halfway inside the man's skull before removing it.

"You couldn't just cut his head off," the elf asked as the storm started clearing.

"He was going for his gun," the giant said.

"Stow it Galahad," the individual with the large knife said before turning to the half-elf, "Percival," he then pointed at the larger man, "Gawain, hide the bodies," he then turned back at the elf, "Galahad, you're with me."

"Got that, Lancelot," Percival said.

Lancelot and Galahad jogged away from the ambush point to an observation point above their target: an opium farm operated by a wanted member of the insurgency. Many of the men who were fighting for him were either being paid in either opium or money from opium farming.

"Merlin, repot," Lancelot said as he pressed two fingers to his throat-mic.

"The storm's moving off," Merlin, the team's intelligence officer said as he was safely back in Kandahar airfield, "Recon's coming on station now," Lancelot and Galahad looked up to see an Aarakocra circling overhead.

"How's it looking up there, Kay," Lancelot asked.

"Looks very cold," Kay said, "You try being up here, and we'll see how you like it!"

"Hey, easy there Big Bird," Galahad said, "We're here to do a job, not to cause any tension."

"Alright, alright," Gold said, "I'll get back to you in a minute."

"Be careful," Lancelot said as Percival and Gawain joined them.

"The bodies are well-hidden," Gawain said as he dropped a large duffle bag on the ground next to them, "Wish we could bring our own weapons."

"Command wants plausible deniability on this one," Lancelot said as he reached into the bag, and pulled out a suppressed AK-74 with an old Soviet NSPU night-vision scope.

Percival reached into the bag to pull out a PSL sniper rifle, and after inserting a fresh magazine, there was a great whoosh as the Aarakocra landed right behind them.

"Good to see you," Lancelot said.

"Likewise," Kay said as he knelt down next to the team.

"What've we got," Lancelot asked.

Kay pointed off toward the fields, "I spotted seven tangos patrolling the poppy fields," he said, "They primarily have old AKs, but I did spot one of them with a pump-action," he then pointed at the compound, "There's an old DSHK on the back of a pickup facing the fields."

"What about the compound itself," Galahad asked.

"There are three guards outside the main building," Kay said, "There's a secondary building beyond that, and I counted two guards outside there, so that's probably the main barracks. Plus there is one in the middle of the courtyard."

"Anyone else," Gawain asked.

"Nope," Kay said, "None that I could see."

"Ok then," Lancelot said as he pointed to Gawain, "Gawain, we're gonna head down, and take care of the fields. If you can get the ones in the field, I can take care of the DSHK, and provide support," he then looked at Galahad and Percival, "Galahad, Percival, you two are on overwatch. If we're compromised, I want you two to provide support."

"You know we will," Galahad said as he reached into the bag, and pulled out an MM-1 multi-shot grenade-launcher.

Gawain pulled out the weapon he was given for this mission: a suppressed Kalashnikov PKM.

Lancelot then turned back to Kay, "Kay, you have the most important part of this assignment, when we clear those fields, you know what to do," he said.

"You got it," Kay said as he held out his hand, "Let's do it quietly."

The team put their hands into the center, "Knights on three," Lancelot said, "One, two, three…"

All five of them quietly exclaimed, "Knights!"

Navigating their way around the guards is certainly not the easiest way to maintain stealth, but it is the best way: better to take the tried and true method than the risky, possibly loud method.

As Lancelot continued toward the DSHK gunner, Gawain continued toward the poppy fields.

Gawain managed to get into cover behind the poppies, and looked up to peek at the DSHK gunner who was smoking.

As the DSHK gunner was having his smoke, he heard sand rustling and turned around to see nothing behind him.

He then felt something land in the back of the truck his DSHK was mounted to, but before he could turn around, someone grabbed him from behind, covered his mouth, and embedded a large blade into his chest.

Lancelot held the man's face tight before he eventually went limp, and allowed Lancelot to gently lay him across the back of the truck, and put his smoke out on the side rim.

Lancelot balanced his rifle on the back of the pickup to see Gawain kneeling down behind a load of poppies.

Lancelot gave Gawain a small salute, and he began his assault.

The first guard patrolling the fields didn't hear a thing before a very large figure slashed him across the back of the neck with a large tomahawk.

Moving onto the second, he was done in a matter of seconds, the third had somehow managed to splatter blood across a small line of poppies as did the fourth.

Gawain didn't have time to move as he saw the fifth was turning around, so he quickly swung around his PKM, and opened fire, striking the fifth across the chest.

The sixth felt the blood splatter on him, and turned around, only for Gawain to nail him in the chest as well.

The seventh would have gotten a shot off if Lancelot hadn't gotten him first: one controlled burst through the side of the chest.

The eighth turned around, only to have a single shot from Percival's PSL open a flesh-tunnel through the side of his skull.

"Nice shot," Lancelot said, "The fields are cleared. Kay, pave the road."

Kay picked up two gasoline canisters and took off over the fields.

Being as he was coming in from a high altitude, and pulling sharply upwards over the fields, Kay didn't have to flap his wings and simply glided over the fields, pouring petroleum over the fields.

Kay made three passes over the fields with the first can before dropping it into Gawain's waiting arms.

He then landed back on the mountain and unscrewed the cap on the second before taking off.

Three more passes over the far side of the fields were enough for Kay to signal Lancelot and Gawain that it was time.

Gawain pulled out the delayed-incendiary device that Galahad made, and set it against the petroleum before lighting it.

"Merlin, we're moving," Lancelot said.

"Roger that," Merlin said as he turned around to advise the General in the T.O.C., "Sir, the team is leaving the area."

"Have they lit the fields," the General asked.

"UAV's coming online now," another one of the soldiers said, "If they have, we should see a nice, beautiful fire."

As Lancelot and Gawain were running away from the area, the incendiary device that Galahad had made caused a small explosion that looked like a child setting off a firecracker.

By the time the guards saw the light from the fire and went to investigate. By the time they had alerted the compound that there was a fire, Lancelot and Gawain had returned to the mountain.

"Lancelot, we see the fire," Merlin said, "I'm surprised they didn't notice it earlier."

"They're idiots, Merlin," Lancelot said as he signaled the team to leave, "Be advised, we are exfiltrating the area."

"Roger that," Merlin said, "See you back at base."

The exfiltration area was about six klicks away from the compound, but Kay wasn't with them: being an Aarakocra he chose to simply fly back to base by himself.

Lancelot, Percival, Galahad, and Gawain had set up a defensive position around their extraction chopper's LZ.

As they were waiting around, however, they were soon meet with a barrage of gunfire, and saw several insurgents, probably from the compound running toward them.

"CONTACT," Lancelot yelled, "Weapons free!"

The team turned toward the hostiles and opened fire: Lancelot's AK managing to down about three hostiles before having to reload.

The next few hostiles were brought down by Gawain's PKM as he laid down a constant barrage of fire to make sure the hostiles were suppressed.

The biggest advantage they had, however, was Galahad because of the grenade launcher.

Sending off multiple grenades toward the hostile was certainly one of the biggest advantages he had as the grenades he was using were HE (High-Explosive) rounds.

Percival was at a huge disadvantage as his rifle was pretty much useless when someone is shooting back at you. Percival was restricted to using the Makarov pistol he was issued for the mission.

The scope on Lancelot's AK was a huge advantage to him as it was a very dark night, but the muzzle-flash from the hostile's AKs was a very good indicator of where they were.

Not that they needed it for long because as they were defending the LZ, the CH-46 Chinook came in for a landing, the door-gunner on the side of the chopper letting off a steady barrage of .50 caliber bullets toward the hostiles who had no choice but to run.

As the team ran onto the Chinook, Lancelot looked out the back as the hostiles turned around to see them leaving their rifle range.

As he closed the back gate, he walked back to his men and sat down next to Percival.

"We've had worse," Percival said.

"We've had better," Lancelot said as he lifted his leg, and opened the flap that ran down the back of his leg, freeing his tail, "Right now, I could use a tall drink."

"You and me both, brother," Percival said as he held out his fist to Lancelot.

Lancelot bumped the top, and bottom of Percival's fist then grabbed his hand.

_How's that one_…


	2. State Side

**Part 2 – Downtime**

The Knights – a Special Forces group under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command. The group is made mostly of species that no one else wants, trusts, or species that are looked down upon. Most of them are good soldiers, but many of the other Special Forces groups won't give them much of a chance.

First stop after that mission was the showers – a good wash underneath warm water with soap is a very good morale booster for soldiers when they need it.

The debriefing went along smoothly, save for the fact that they needed to explain why they had to go hot towards the end of the mission.

Needless to say, the team was relieved climbing onto the C-130 that they would be heading back to America for some downtime.

As they climbed onto the C-130, Merlin was already stringing up his hammock, "There's our resident crop-burners," he said as he looked over to see them.

Merlin, or rather, Corporal Rock Lee, was a half-orc that was given to the Knights from Force Recon selection. Rock might have been half-orc, but he was one of the best intelligence operators you could ask for. His father was a Marine that served in the attempted invasion of America by Orc pillagers from Scandinavia. After the invasion, he found a single female Orc who was being held as a slave by the pillagers. He helped her gain citizenship, taught her English, and got her a job as a teacher of the orc language at a local school. They got married, had Rock, and trained him to be tough.

Being as he was half-human and half-orc, he would never be fully accepted by society. When he was looking for a part-time job when he was in high school, people didn't want to give him a job because of the jet-black hair, red eyes, Middle-Eastern human skin tone, and the two sharp teeth jutting out of his lower jaw. Naturally, the military was the best choice for him, and he gravitated toward the Marine Corps.

"Don't forget you helped us," Galahad said.

Galahad, or rather Sai was an average-sized elf who had very pale skin, and very shiny black hair like Rock's. Ending up in the Knights was the last thing in his mind, but he felt like joining them was the only way he could help fight injustice.

"Ah, leave him alone," Gawain said.

Gawain, otherwise known by his given name, Sergeant Shino Stonebearer Aburame was a 6'6 half-Goliath that was one of the best shots with a Machine Gun you could ever have watching your back. The big problem with Shino was that he was so damn tall, and the deep red tattoos he had stuck out like a sore thumb on his Caucasian-like skin. Because of this, no one wanted him on their squad because he was a walking wall, or as the Marines would describe it: a walking bullseye.

"Yea, they left him in the cave too long," Percival said.

Percival usually went by his given name: Petty Officer First-Class Naruto Uzumaki. One of the best Caucasian-skinned half-elf snipers you could find who was put into the Knights by mistake, but he still loved it just the same. Naruto was born to a human Navy sailor father and an elvish mother who worked at a clinic in Chicago. While watching his father work, Naruto knew instantly what his destiny would be. He would have originally gone to either a human or an elvish unit, but he ended up in the Knights when there was no other unit available (or so he thought).

"Anything to add, boss," Merlin asked.

"Yea," Lancelot said, "Where's my hammock?"

"Over there," Merlin said.

Lancelot, real name: First Lieutenant Sasuke Dharmos Uchiha. A Tiefling, one of the best friends you could ever have, and the worst enemy you could ever make. You look at the 6'3 height, the rusty-red skin, dark onyx eyes, horns that wrapped around the side of his skull and came to two upswept points in the back like a crown, and gorgeous black hair, and you'd expect him to tear you to pieces like an angry grizzly bear. But Sasuke was a very different kind of Tiefling: orphaned from birth, he was raised by an elvish father and a human mother, who taught him to respect those around him. Upon joining the Army, he was not liked as an officer due to his race, but he still excelled. But when he tried out for Special Forces and passed at the head of his class, but everyone else passed on him, so the Knights reached out, he accepted, and was welcomed with open arms.

As Sasuke strung up his hammock and settled in, he watched as Sai walked over to the end of the plane, took his seat in his regular position, and instantly started snoring.

Naruto simply sat back against the side of the plane, leaned his head back, and just relaxed in his seat.

A fourteen and a half-hour flight from Afghanistan back to America is very boring for soldiers, all there is to do is sleep, clean your gun(s), or indulge in a hobby such as writing fan fiction.

That was the last thing on Sasuke's mind right now as he thought back to his new (personal) mission.

It was early morning by the time they left Afghanistan, and it was late evening by the time they arrived back in Chicago.

Their first stop upon leaving the plane was to change out of their military gear.

"I can't wait to get home," Rock said as he removed his TRU-SPEC shirt, and pulled on the black short-sleeve button-up shirt he put in his locker when they left.

"Why," Shino asked as he removed his boots to change into his sneakers, "Your mom press your sheets?"

"Fuck you, Shino," Rock said as he fixed the button on his jeans, "Me and my sister are trying to keep her kids in line now that her divorce is finalized."

"How's she dealing with that by the way," Naruto asked as he changed into the khaki shorts he left behind, "I'm sure it'd probably be stressful, being a single parent."

"She's fine," Rock said, "And why are you curious? You're getting married in three months!"

"Come on, leave him, alone guys," Sasuke said as he fastened the belt on his jeans, "Poor kid's got enough to worry about without you two making it hard on him."

"Thanks, boss," Rock said.

"After all, he has to make sure the kids end up better than he did," Sasuke said as he walked over to slap the team's intel officer on the back.

The team then walked over to their vehicles to drive back to their houses.

The 2018 Forge Fusion Sasuke had bought and paid for on deployment was sitting in the parking lot waiting for him.

Shino climbed into the F-350. It was Ingot Silver, with an angular step-bar, a tailgate step, and a custom aftermarket bumper with a winch.

Naruto meanwhile had a custom soft tail Harley painted black, and had a custom red-leather seat.

Rock meanwhile had a Honda Metropolitan painted white.

Sai lived on base so he didn't need to drive to his house because his house was on station.

Sai simply walked over to his barracks, and as he arrived, he saw his human girlfriend, Ino standing outside the barracks waiting for him.

"Welcome home," She said as she walked up to him, and pulled him into a loving kiss.

Twenty minutes later, a group of celestial healers was leaving Chicago Central, among them was a small group of holy maidens: a human, a gnome, and a half-elf.

The human was about five-foot-eight, middle-eastern skin-tone, auburn brown eyes, long, flowing black hair, and a simple beauty mark above the upper-right corner of her lip.

The gnome was three-foot-two, Caucasian skin-tone, deep green eyes, thinly cut brown hair, and a very thin, long nose.

The half-elf was five-foot-five, Caucasian skin-tone, amazing emerald green eyes, long bubblegum pink hair that was tied in a long ponytail, and she had a small green diamond tattooed on her forehead.

"I'm telling you Jossa, he's into you," the human said.

"He's a dwarf," Jossa said, "I'm a gnome. Really Lucy, how would that honestly work?"

"You make it work," Lucy said as she held her hand out to the half-elf, "Look at Sakura. She's the product of a mixed relationship. She's in a mixed relationship."

Sakura S. Haruno, one of the strongest women you would ever meet, and one of the best holy healers you could ask for if you had suffered a serious injury. Her father was an American human who was a serious military man that pushed his kids to join the military. Her mother was a British elf that fell in love with Sakura's father and immigrated to the U.S. when she and her newly-wed husband learned she was pregnant with Sakura's older brother.

"Speaking of which," Jossa said as she looked up to see Sasuke standing beside his car, looking at her, "There's the military man."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Sakura said as she walked toward Sasuke.

"The kind of relationship we all strive for," Lucy said, "You see Jossa? Mixed-race couples can work."

As Sakura walked up to Sasuke, she reached out to grab the front of his long-tailed black tee-shirt and yanked him down to her level so she could attempt to turn his lips inside out with her own.

When the pulled apart, Sasuke smiled down at her, "That's a nice way to say hello," he said.

"You've been gone for a week," Sakura said, "I want you all to myself tonight."

"How about dinner first," Sasuke asked.

"I know a nice place," Sakura said as she opened the door to Sasuke's car, and put her bag in, "It's called Veils'."

"Sounds nice," Sasuke said, "Dress-code?"

"Just come as-is," Sakura said as she walked around to the other side of the car, "We'll be welcome there."

As they climbed in and set off, Shino was arriving at his house: a nice one-story house that was supported by both him and his wife's paycheck.

As Shino exited his truck and walked up to his door, he heard the sound of the TV on.

Unlocking the door, he walked inside to see the TV on, after closing it, he walked into the living room to see his wife and daughter sitting down to dinner.

"Daddy," five-year-old Hine Steel Aburame exclaimed as she jumped out of her chair to run up to Shino.

Shino knelt down to pick up his daughter as his pregnant human wife, Tenten Aburame walked up to him.

His daughter was mostly human, but she was 1/4 Goliath. So she had inherited a very pale, almost white skin tone, her mother's deep brown hair, and his brown eyes. Right about now she was five-years-old, but she looked like she could be an eight-year-old, she was four-feet tall. Being mostly human, but somewhat Goliath, she would probably grow up to be almost as tall as Sasuke.

His wife, Tenten Charlotte (Hastings) Aburame was a very beautiful five-foot-three Caucasian/Japanese human with rich brown hair, and brown eyes you could get lost in.

Tenten walked up to Shino who knelt down to give her a kiss. It must suck when your significant other is much taller than you.

"Welcome home," Tenten said as she looked up at her skyscraper of a husband.

"Good to be home," Shino said before looking over at Hine, "You been a good girl while I've been gone?"

"Yes," Hine said, "You know I have."

"Ok then," Shino said as he noticed the smell coming from the kitchen, "Something smells good."

"Momma made dinner," Hine said, "We saved some for you in case you'd be back tonight."

"Fantastic," Shino said as he walked into the dining room, "Cause I'm hungry. Those MREs they fed us in Afghanistan were disgusting."

"Well now you're home so you can enjoy my cooking once more," Tenten said as Shino set their daughter at her seat, she sat at her seat, and Shino walked over to place a huge slab of his wife's lamb and potatoes onto a plate he pulled out of the nearest cabinet.

He sat down with his wife and daughter and began eating as Rock was pulling up in front of his sister's house.

After turning off his scooter, and placing his helmet down, his niece and nephew swarmed him like dwarf miners wanting their payment.

"Ok, ok," Rock said as he stopped himself from falling.

His nephew and niece were strong: his sister had married an elf, so her three children were 1/4 human, 1/4 orc, and 1/2 elf. His nephew, Arund had some semblance of an orc with his square jaw, but mostly he looked like a half-elf with his middle-eastern skin tone and his pointy elf ears. If he opened his mouth, however, and you saw his pointy meat-shredding orc-like teeth, you'd know he had a little Orc in him. His niece was the same, save for the fact she had a more rounded jaw, less-pointed teeth, and she had orc-like patterning around her chest and abdomen.

Rock's sister, Zunagu stood in the doorway with her one-year-old son, and as her brother walked up to her, she spoke up, "Good to have you home."

"Likewise," Rock said as he looked down at his nephew, and held out his arms to offer to take him.

Zunagu placed Barben in his arms, the family walked back into the house.

It was at this time that Naruto was arriving where he needed to be. An elvish community that had to be reached by climbing a series of steps that looked like stairs leading into a heavenly realm.

The various vehicles that ran on magical fuel instead of fossil fuel were parked around the trees were all painted either white, grey, or black, and were all owned by elves or humans that lived with the elves.

As he climbed the stairs, he could see the gentle light from the white path lights that hung above the pathways. Naruto walked down the pathway to a single house that was made of wood, had a green roof that came to several points, but then sunk back into the rest of the roof. The door was stained black and had a thick glass window.

Naruto went into his pocket, fished out his keys, unlocked the door, and walked inside to see the one person he had missed the most waiting for him: his fiancée, Hinata.

Hinata Hyūga, a gorgeous five-foot-three Moon Elf with fair skin, dark purple (almost black) hair, and faint grey eyes. Hinata was involved in an accident several years ago in which her eyes were damaged. The healers were able to save most of her vision, but she still had residual effects from the accident. She could see, make out the shapes and colors of things, but tiny details were completely invisible to her.

Naruto and Hinata met in elementary school and had been in love ever since. After the accident, Naruto took five days of unpaid vacation to attend to her. It was during that time that Naruto confessed his love for her, and they started dating. Two months prior to our current period, Naruto asked Hinata to marry him, and they had already had their wedding all planned.

"Welcome home," Hinata said as she looked over to see her fiancé shut the door behind him, and lock it.

"Sorry I'm late," Naruto said as he walked up to Hinata, sat down next to her, and allowed her to lean on him.

_How was that_…


	3. Before the Storm

**Part 3 – Knight-Fall**

The next morning, Sakura raised her hand to shield her face from the rays of sunlight peeking in through the blinds of her paramour's apartment.

Needless to say, sharing a bed with someone who has a tail isn't something that someone can get used to.

When asleep, a Tiefling's tail is pretty stationary, but sometimes, the tail can twitch sometimes in the middle of the night like a cat telling you that they can still hear you.

Luckily, Sasuke had slept with his tail hanging off the edge of the bed, but when the tail is flopping around, making a small thudding sound, you could imagine that your downstairs neighbors are going to get annoyed if they were awake.

She found herself curled against him, his muscular arms wrapped around her like a safety blanket. She could stare forever at the restful, handsome face she was initially afraid of when they first met. She then looked down to see the scars that crisscrossed his chest: some deep and jagged, others thin and clean.

She could have laid there for hours looking at him, but unfortunately, phone alarms exist, and as it went off, she reached over to close it, and when she turned back, she saw his eyes opening.

"Morning," he said as he awoke to see her look back at him.

"Hello," Sakura said, "I'm surprised you didn't get up earlier. Having just got back in from your mission."

"I like to sleep with you," Sasuke said as he ran his hand down Sakura's side, gently scraping the top of his nails across her hip when he finished, "Makes me feel comfortable."

"And you make me feel safe," Sakura said as she leaned in, and kissed him, "What should we do today?"

"I have an idea," Sasuke said, "Why don't we get cleaned, and head down to the boardwalk?"

"I'll follow your lead," Sakura said as she sat up before a set of muscular arms trapped her waist.

"I have a better idea," Sasuke said as he suddenly swept Sakura off of the bed, and carried her toward the bathroom.

_Shino_…

The bed that Shino and his wife slept in was specially ordered from a store that caters to goliaths (or in Shino's case, half-goliaths). The frame was made of titanium so it wouldn't bend, and the mattress was made of air beads so there wouldn't be a large permanent indent in the mattress. For Shino, the bed was the perfect size, for Tenten, it was like a child sleeping in their parent's bed. They had been married for over seven years, they had lived together for eight, and to this day it still felt like that for Tenten. It was still nice to know you'd probably never run out of room.

Shino turned over as his own alarm woke them up to flip it off, and sat up on the side of the bed to head to the shower.

As he finished washing, he walked back into the bedroom to see Tenten getting ready for her shower.

"Well, good morning to you," he said as he walked up to her.

"Morning babe," Tenten said as she turned around, "Think you could get Hine up, she has a test-review today?"

"Of course," Shino said.

As Shino walked into Hine's room to see his daughter sleeping underneath the _Warrior Princess_ blanket she loved to sleep under.

As Shino sat on his daughter's bed, Hine instantly knew her father was there because the entire bed sank down toward the foot.

"Morning daddy," Hine said as she pulled the blanket over her head.

"Morning," Shino said, "Come on, you've got a big day ahead of you."

"Five more minutes," Hine said.

"I could give you five more minutes," Shino said, "But then you'd miss my singing."

"I'm up," Hine said as she ran over to her dresser and fishing out her school uniform, and ran out of her room.

"Works every time," Shino said as he stood up, and walked toward the kitchen.

_Rock_…

Zunagu was walking into the living room of her house to the smell of cooking breakfast sausage as she looked into the kitchen to see her brother cooking for her.

"Good morning," Zunagu said as she walked over to the kitchen table, and sat down to have her brother walk up to her and place a few pieces of breakfast sausage on her plate, "Thanks."

"Glad to have someone who can take care of household chores," Rock asked.

"I'm just glad that someone who can cook is back in my life," Zunagu said as she began eating, "I missed you."

"I missed being here," Rock said as he put his hand on his sister's shoulder, "I wish there was a way I could be there for both you and the team."

Zunagu grabbed her brother's hand, and smiled, "Thanks, big brother," she said.

It was then that Zunagu heard the sound she didn't want to hear so early: Arund and Zorand running out of their bedrooms to their uncle's breakfast cheering, which in-turn led to the sound that Zunagu really didn't want to hear: Barben waking up crying.

"Breakfast time," Arund exclaimed as he jumped into his seat.

"I get first dibs," Zorand exclaimed as she prepared her plate.

"Not yet," Rock said as he walked into the dining room, before proceeding to the back of the house, "I'll take care of this."

"Thanks," Zunagu said as she prepared to lecture her children about waking up their baby brother.

Rock walked into Barben's room to see his infant nephew crying because someone woke him up, "Hey there," he said as he reached down, lifted his crying nephew out of his crib, and started shushing him, "There, there, little colt," Rock proceeded to gently pat his nephew on the back, and gently bounced him on the shoulder before his nephew fell back asleep.

It was then that Zunagu walked into the room to see Barben asleep on Rock's shoulder, he raised a finger to his lips before placing Barben back in his crib.

"He's cute when he sleeps," Rock said as he covered his nephew back up with the blanket his father gave him when he was a baby that he gave to Barben, "It makes me long for the day I'll have kids of my own."

"You'll make a great father," Zunagu said.

_Naruto_…

Naruto stepped outside his house after hearing the sound of paper hitting his front door. After stepping outside, he found the paperboy had already dropped his off.

As he picked it up, he looked up to see his neighbor say, "Morning Naruto."

"Morning Alaro," Naruto said, "How're the kids?"

"The kids are fine," Alaro said, "How's Hinata?"

"She's ok," Naruto said, "Still sleeping."

"I imagine being partially blind is hard," Alaro said.

"Yep," Naruto said, "Have a good day."

"You too," Alaro said.

Naruto walked back into his house to see Hinata was actually not sleeping, but rather on a phone call with some of the associates at the law firm she worked at.

"You know we don't need to move forward with the case," Hinata said, "The settlement they've put on the table is more than fair," Hinata stopped as the person on the other end of the phone spoke up, "That's not the point! I'm the one in charge of this case. They've offered twice the original amount the client was asking for, and we don't even have to go to court. Call the defendant, and tell him we're taking the deal. That's my decision, I am the lawyer."

"You know you're incredibly sexy when you're in lawyer mode," Naruto said, "If we weren't going for a no-sex-until-the-wedding pact, I'd take you into the back, and carve another notch in the bedpost."

"Don't worry," Hinata said as she walked up to Naruto, "You'll get plenty on our wedding night. Have a good day," she leaned up and kissed her fiancé before walking over to the kitchen table.

_Sai_…

Ino awoke to hear grunting and the creaking of wood. She tied on her robe and walked into the living room to see Sai doing chin-ups on the bar he had set up in the living room of his dorm.

Needless to say, his white-as-paper skin didn't conceal the scars on his chest, but Ino thought his muscles did a good job of distracting her from them.

"Hello to you," he said as he continued his exercise routine.

"Morning to you," Ino said as she smiled at walked over to him, "Anything on the agenda today?"

"I know of a few errands we can run," Sai said as he dropped onto the ground.

"How about we just stay in for now," Ino asked, "Might give us some much needed 'us' time."

"I can get behind that," Sai said.

_Sasuke and Sakura_…

After their very steamy shower, Sakura had already gotten ready while Sasuke had to take another few minutes to wash his tail. I'd imagine being a Tiefling, having a tail would probably be a bit of a hindrance because you might need an extra squeegee to clean it, and there was the fact that without hiding it, it'd probably hurt someone if it slapped them.

It took Sasuke an extra minute or so to wash and dry his tail before getting dressed.

Sakura had found herself a long-sleeve pinkish-red shirt with white trimming, a pair of khaki pants, and some blue sneakers.

As Sasuke was getting dressed in his military boots, jeans, and his long-sleeve dark blue sweater, he heard Sakura, "Sasuke, you might want to see this!"

Sasuke walked into the living room to see something on the screen that shocked him to his core.

As soon as he saw what was on the screen, he ran into the bedroom and picked up his phone.

Naruto was reading his paper with Hinata and enjoying his morning coffee when he got a ping on his phone.

Shino was eating some of his wife's left-over lamb with some eggs when he heard he was getting a text on his phone.

Rock was getting his nephew and niece ready for school before he felt the 'you have a text' vibration from his phone.

Sai simply looked down when he heard his phone to see Sasuke's message, "Turn on channel 7. NOW!"

"What's that about," Ino asked as she picked up Sai's phone.

"I don't know," Sai said as he picked up the remote, and changed the channel to see what Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Hinata, Shino, Tenten Rock, Sai, and Ino could only describe as the most heinous act of terrorism since 9/11.

_Newscast_…

Chicago's channel 7 news team was now going over the report of an attack on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, the highway 11 bridge, and on the Interstate-10 pass and bridge over the lake and the swamp.

Channel 7 News' female elvish anchor, "Right now reports are coming in of what can only be described as a vile act of terrorism against the inhabitants of New Orleans, and the millions of visitors that visit the city every day," the image shifted from her to imagery of the causeway which was unrecognizable because the part that the cars drove on was in the water along with the cars that were on it at the time was completely gone, and a few cars were actually floating, "As of right now, it is not clear how the causeway was destroyed, but what we do know is that the mermaids who live in the swamps and in the lake were instrumental in saving the lives of everyone they could. The coastguard is currently on its way to assist in the rescue operation."

Sakura walked up and placed her head on Sasuke's chest, "I just got you back, and now they're about to take you away from me," she said as she looped her arms around Sasuke's waist, "It's not fair."

"I know, cherry blossom," Sasuke said as he held her close, "I have to go, for you."

"I'm scared," Sakura said.

"Me too," Sasuke said as he lifted her up, and sat down on the couch with her in his arms, "Let's enjoy every moment we have left before I have to leave."

As Sasuke and Sakura were sitting together, Naruto and Hinata hugged each other as tight as they could: they would probably have to put their wedding date on hold.

_How was that one_…


	4. Declaration of War

**Part 4 – Declaration of War**

Classified War Room, Undisclosed Location…

Many of the Military's top brass were sitting around, discussing the situation when the doors opened, and General Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs entered.

"Mr. Chairman," Mei Terumī, the elvish head of the C.I.A. said as he entered.

"Mei, I want the rundown, and I want it now," General Sarutobi said.

"Sir, right about now, the Agency is running down every lead it can," Mei said, "Right now, no one is claiming responsibility," she then pointed at the screen where an image of six male goblins walking through the Louis Armstrong International Airport parking garage carrying six suitcases that could have been for rifles, "These six were caught acting suspiciously by the TSA, but were cleared. A quick look into their passports shows that they're using cover identities."

"What is their origin point," General Sarutobi asked.

"Their tickets show that they got on the plane to New Orleans from Cairo," Mei said, "However, my agents in the area found out that they arrived over-land from somewhere in mid-continental Africa. We should have an origin point shortly."

"Do we have any idea where they are now," General Sarutobi asked.

"Yes," Mei said, "About five minutes prior to the attacks, they left on a plane heading back to Cairo. We've contacted authorities in Cairo, and we expect to have them in custody by the time they land."

"That is assuming they do land," Major General Rasa Sands said, "They're over international waters now. If they act, my guess is that they're going to either detonate a bomb and vaporize the plane, or they're going to hijack the plane and divert it somewhere else. After all, they managed to destroy every path in and out of New Orleans."

"That would be the case," Mei said, "If they had explosives."

"Sorry," General Sarutobi asked.

"I was handed a report by the head of the New Orleans FBI office," Mei said as she held up the report, "They didn't use any kind of explosive."

"Then what destroyed the bridge," General Sarutobi asked, Mei's face hung heavy with dread when he asked that, "Good hell. You don't mean."

"Confirmed," Mei said, "We have a Black Cross."

The entire room went silent: a Black Cross is code for an unholy artifact. Black magic placed into an artifact touched by a demon that was created with the intent to cause maximum destruction.

"I want the Black Cross kept top-secret," General Sarutobi said, "I'll brief the President, and we'll need to begin preparing our operatives."

_White House_…

President Tsunade San, former American Ambassador to Tokyo, later Congress Minority Whip, and the first Dual-Citizen male or female to be elected to the office of President. She could be described in one word: cougar, long flowing blond hair, voluptuous figure, enormous melons that were bigger than her own head.

General Sarutobi walked into the room with the briefing in hand and placed it on her desk as she and the Vice President sat down to look over it.

"As of right now, the estimated toll is around seventy-six thousand dead, about forty-five thousand wounded or missing," General Sarutobi said, "Forty thousand people use just the Pontchartrain causeway every day. Most of the ways in and out of the city are the bridges and the causeway. There is another way into the city along the canals and the river. All air traffic in and out of the city has been halted until the suspects are caught."

Tsunade sat back in her chair, "Seventy-six thousand dead. A major U.S. city crippled. The country in chaos, and demanding answers," she said, "This is going to be a great day."

"Madame President," General Sarutobi said, "The country is in a state of shock. We need to act now."

"And we will," Tsunade said as she stood up, smoothed out her dress-suit, and turned to her Vice President, "Shizune, contact Genma, and get the Washington Press Corps over here. I'll address the nation," she then turned back to General Sarutobi, "In the meantime, take us to DEFCON 3, and prepare our forces."

"Yes, Madame President," the two of them said as they walked out of the room.

Tsunade walked around to her desk, and the first thing she did was call the Pentagon.

_Chicago_…

"Alright, thanks," Sasuke said as he hung up the phone at the team and their families gathered at Shino's house.

"What's the word," Shino asked as he looked up from his wife who was leaning against his shoulder.

"The President just took us to DEFCON 3, and all Special Forces Units in the military have been put on stand-by," Sasuke said as he turned around to look at everyone gathered there, "Right about now, most of our forward-deployed are on high-alert. Right now, no one has been called in yet."

"Let's keep our ears open then," Sai said, "Right now it appears we're at war."

"We're already at war," Sasuke said as he walked over to where Sakura was sitting, "Whoever did this just opened another front."

_Pentagon_…

"Right now most of our soldiers are engaged in battles across the Middle East," Secretary of Defense Gerald Morehouse said, "Right now, we don't know where these goblins are going. Before we can send our troops in, we need to gather intelligence."

"The C.I.A. is on it," President Tsunade said, "Right now we don't have a clear picture of who's behind it, but we do have a lead that we are hoping to chase down."

"That lead is," Secretary Morehouse asked.

"Six suspicious individuals," President Tsunade said, "Goblins, carrying Black Crosses."

"Dear shit," Secretary Morehouse said, "Black crosses? How'd it come to that?"

"We don't know," President Tsunade said, "Right now, I want you to put our forces on high alert. We need to be prepared."

"At once, Madame President," Secretary Morehouse said.

_C.I.A Headquarters_…

Processing thousands of gigabytes of data might be pretty hard if you're doing it at home, for the C.I.A., it's a few clicks, and thousands of gigabytes of data can be rifled through in a matter of minutes.

Mei had issued a general order to find where those goblins came from, and where the unholy artifacts came from.

"On this day, a day that will live in infamy, a horrendous act of terrorism was committed against one of our nation's great cities," President Tsunade said in her address to the nation, "They tried to intimidate us, and spread fear amongst our population: they failed. Because New Orleans is almost completely cut off from the outside world, I have federalized the Louisiana National Guard to assist in creating temporary ways in and out of New Orleans until the causeway and bridges can be repaired. Right now, we cannot afford to be divided: we will be tested, but our resolve is strong, and we will never feign from our goal. Justice will be served, and we will bring the ones that did this to justice."

"I hope you're right, Tsunade," Mei said as she leaned back in her desk chair, and exhaled strongly. Right about now, most of her agents had been focused on the Middle East with the Lizardfolk and Kobolds. Now she had to divert her resources to find where those goblins came from.

It was then one of her agents ran in, "Mrs. Terumī," he said as he walked in, "We think we have something," Mei looked up as the agent walked up to her desk, and held out a picture that was taken by customs of one of the goblin's passports, "The passport, registered to Mugu Tarlind. Passport has an Egyptian seal on it because that's where he departed to the U.S. from," he then held out a file, "However, when we ran his picture we found something else."

Mei took the file from the agent's hand, and opened it to reveal the image of a green-skinned Goblin Kandra Confederacy Soldier, "Slugwill Chatterwall," Mei asked.

"Former Sargent in the KMR," the Agent said, "After the Congolese Confederacy's economy took a sharp drop back in '14, the entire KMR was disbanded to save the economy money."

The KMR: _Kitengo cha Msaada wa Raia_, or as Google translate says from Swahili to English, the Civil Relief Unit, at one point, the greatest unit in the Kandra Confederacy's Armed Forces. After the country's economic collapse in 2014 after the country's exportation services' workers took up a two-year strike against the country's Department of Labor, the Armed Forces were the first thing they overhauled on the Government's Economic Rebuilding Policy. The KMR was the best, but also the most expensive, and when it came to cutting cost, it was either that or sell off ten percent of their air force.

When they let the KMR go, they had no discretionary fund to help their soldiers along while they looked for another job, they didn't offer them positions in the regular army, and they didn't even say sorry. It left a whole lot of them resentful and some of them penny-less. In 2015, a bunch of them created the Kandara Worker's Brigade and overthrew the country's government in a matter of months. Luckily the country's Prime Minister fled before they overtook the capitol city of Koras, and had been granted political asylum in the U.S.

The new head of the Kandra Republic kept pressuring the U.S. into sending the Prime Minister back to the country so they could try him. But every President denied them that, and ever since they had been engaging in small anti-U.S. attacks, destroying the American Embassy, denying U.S. citizens entry, and even attacking U.S. convoys that passed over the border every time they needed to get from the Congolese Confederacy to the Democratic State of Zambia.

They had never taken it to this extreme, and right now, the entire country was going to be completely pissed off at them. Just like 9/11, there was going to be a massive surge in men and women signing up for service.

"So a disgruntled soldier-turned-resistance-fighter-turned-terrorist," Mei asked, "Where does that leave us though?"

"With this," the Agent said as he turned the page to the next document which showed a picture of Slugwill with his old KMR unit, he then pointed at the goblin sitting next to Slugwill in the picture, "Maggot Tolar," he pointed at the goblin behind Slugwill in the New Orleans picture, he then pointed to the one standing behind Slugwill, "Tik Mudhorse," the goblin walking in front of Slugwill, "Stubeye Greytar," the goblin walking next to Slugwill, "Dullbrain Ingot," the goblin walking next to Stubeye, finally the goblin walking next to Maggot, "Wartface Jok. They all served together in the same KMR unit: the Ferals. Their primary job was deep-territory strikes, specializing in attacks on infrastructure."

"So we have our man," Mei said, "Or should I say, men," she looked up at the Agent, "Still, what about Kandra?"

"We found this," the agent said as he handed Mei a picture of Slugwill with Kandra's newest President, "He's been the President's bodyguard ever since the revolution."

"So he sends the only man he can trust to get this done," Mei said, "Well done, I'll brief the President."

"Thank you, ma'am," the agent said before bowing and leaving the room.

The next thing that Mei did was pick up her phone, and make a call to the White House.

Tsunade had dropped two aspirin tablets into a glass of water that she had asked her assistant, Charles Young, a half-orc law student at Georgetown University.

The U.S. would be crying out for blood in the next several hours, and unless she said where they were going, they'd be after anyone who looked like an Orc or a Troll, and they might even go after middle-eastern-skinned humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, or half-elves. Some of them might even go after Tieflings, and no President wants to see that, especially after a terrorist attack like that.

As she sat down, Charles walked in to see her with her hands clutching fistfuls of her own hair, stressed out of her mind, "Madame President," he said.

"Yes, Charlie," Tsunade asked as she looked up, "Mrs. Terumī is on the phone."

"Put her through Charlie," Tsunade said, as she picked up the phone, the first thing she said was, "Please tell me you have good news."

"I have good news for a lot of people," Mei said, "We know where the goblins came from, and where they're going."

"You just made my day," Tsunade said, "Where?"

"You might want to ask the Prime Minister of Kandra if he wants his old job back," Mei said.

"Goblins," Tsunade asked.

"KMR," Mei said, "We've positively identified former members of the unit. One of them is the personal bodyguard to Kandra's President."

"I'll contact Congress," Tsunade said.

_This means war_…


	5. Wedding Day

**Part 5 – Wedding Day**

The following day, Tsunade got Congress to approve a Declaration of War against the Kandra Republic.

The team's CO, Major Kakashi Hatake, codenamed Arthur, a six-foot-two human male with snow-white hair, and one magic red eye that was hidden behind his eyepatch had summoned them to the war room which was in one of the base's classrooms.

Back on base in Chicago, the team gathered with him, "Most of the Knights are on deployment across the Middle East," he said, "Command doesn't want to pull them off of deployment, and many other teams are either on leave or are too far away to assist in the operation. Following these attacks, the U.S. is on high alert, and many of our forces are being diverted from other battlefields to assist with this one. Right now as the closest unit in the Knights that has a deployment date close enough for them to move up, so the responsibility falls to you to represent the unit as best you can. I'm sorry to say this boys, but your date of deployment just got moved up."

"How long do we have," Sasuke asked.

"You leave in 18 hours," Kakashi said, "Any tidying up you have to do on the personal front, I suggest you do it now. Any questions?"

"You going to be joining us for this one, Major," Naruto asked.

"Not at this moment," Kakashi said, "Command wants me here coordinating things on behalf of the Knights. Command wants you boys to get settled in. I'll follow after about a few weeks to a month."

"Any word if we're actually going to get in on the action, or if we're going to be limited to throw-away assignments like we've been getting," Rock asked.

"Rock," Sasuke snapped.

"Don't be mad at the boy, Lieutenant," Kakashi said, "He has a fair point. And as of this point, we don't know. All I do know is that once you arrive in the United Congolese Confederacy, the various other units will be sharing a camp with you."

"And they'll want nothing to do with us," Naruto said as he looked over at his team, "As usual."

"Get used to it," Sasuke said, "We can't help the way we look. But we can help the way people look at us."

"Hey," Kakashi said, "Save it for the base. Right now, you boys have some catching up to do with your family. Any further questions," no one said anything, "Ok then boys, go home, take a shower, kiss your partner, feed the dog. Wheels up tomorrow, 0750. Dismissed."

As the team was walking away, Sasuke put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Hey," he said as he pulled Naruto over to the corner of the room, "Look, if you need to stay for a while so you and Hinata can…"

"Let me stop you there," Naruto said, "No, I'm not going to stay, and don't try to talk the Major into letting me. I want to be with you and the guys on this one, and I don't care if you say otherwise. Hinata and I have an understanding. We're grown adults, and we can handle it. We actually had a plan set up just in case."

"Go ahead," Sasuke said.

"You got your dress blues back at the house," Naruto asked.

"Freshly pressed," Sasuke said.

"Spirit of Chicago, tonight, 8:30," Naruto said.

"Alright," Sasuke said, "But you know what this means when we get back."

"Yea, yea," Naruto said, "After-wedding bachelor party," he then pointed at Sasuke, "But as best-man, you know what that means to a married man."

"Yea, yea," Sasuke said, "Don't worry about it," he then turned to the group, and hooked his arms around his XO's shoulders, "Hey boys! We get to watch them tie the anchor around his neck early! He's getting married tonight!"

The team cheered and gathered around Naruto to congratulate him before they all walked out of the room together.

As they were walking out to their car, Shino spoke up, "I never expected you of all people to have a contingency plan in case you deployed early."

"We thought something like this might happen," Naruto said, "We're Spec Ops. We thought something like this might happen."

"You'll get through it, I'm sure," Rock said, "Anything we should do?"

"We will need a few things," Naruto said.

"What things," Sasuke asked.

"A cake would be nice," Naruto said.

"I can take care of that," Rock said.

"Maybe some flowers," Naruto said.

"Done," Sai said.

"We could use a flower girl," Naruto said.

"I volunteer my girl," Shino said.

"A ring-bearer," Naruto asked.

"Arund should do just fine," Rock said.

"Looks like we have our wedding party together," Naruto said, "See you tonight, boys."

Sai simply walked back to his dorm where Ino was waiting, her having decided not to open her family's flower shop that day.

As Sai walked into their room and up to her, she placed her forehead against his when they embraced, "What's the word," she asked.

"We leave in eighteen hours," Sai said.

"Here I was thinking I'd get you for a little while longer," Ino said.

"You'll have me plenty for the next few hours," Sai said, "But afterward, you think we could make some flower arrangements?"

"For what," Ino asked.

"Naruto and Hinata's wedding," Sai said, "We'll probably be gone for at least six months."

"I think we can make a decent flower arrangement for them," Ino said, "After I get my creative juices flowing."

"I'll get them going for you," Sai said as he lifted his girlfriend up, and carried her into their bedroom.

Needless to say, Naruto arriving at Hinata's law firm was something she wasn't expecting.

Her office building was a very nicely decorated space with oak-wood floors and rich leather furniture.

Her office itself was nicely sized with a mahogany wood desk, a large computer set up, and a very nice view of Chicago.

"You want to get married tonight," Hinata asked.

"Why not," Naruto asked, "We're already engaged, so why not?"

"Naruto, I love you, and I do want to get married," Hinata said, "But tonight? We don't even have a wedding party together."

"Yes we do," Naruto said, "The team said they'd help. You have Sakura here. You always said you wanted her to be your Maid-of-Honor. Ino can put together a wedding bouquet. You know Shino's girl is the best flower girl we can have, and Rock's nephew is the best ring bearer."

"But what about my parents," Hinata asked, "You know my parents are going to be angry. Mom will want to come and see me get married."

"You know she'll want to bring your father," Naruto said, "You know he won't giving a flying fuck about giving you away."

"I know," Hinata said, "But I still want mom to come, I want to see her at my ceremony."

"We can still do that," Naruto said as he walked around the desk to kneel in front of his fiancée, "We'll get married tonight, and when we return from deployment, we'll have a separate ceremony for our families. We'll make it the biggest ceremony in history for both our families and all of our friends. But let's jump into this now. Let's get this over with before I have to leave. I'll always have you to come back too, but I want to come back to you as your husband."

"I love you," Hinata said as she leaned down to kiss him.

Naruto took her hands and asked, "What do you say? You want to take the plunge with me tonight?"

"Let's do it," Hinata said.

Naruto and Hinata embraced before sharing a deep kiss.

The first stop for Shino after leaving the base was to Chicago Central Elementary.

Chicago Central Elementary was for many years after WW2 a predominantly human school. In about 1967, during Vietnam, desegregation took hold, the first race to comingle with the human children in the school were elves. Shino himself attended the school, as did Sasuke, Naruto, Sai, and Lee. It's where they all became friends.

As he was walking into the front office, the office worker at the time asked, "Yes, sir, can I help you?"

"Shino Aburame," he said, "I'm here to get my daughter, Hine Aburame."

"I.D.," the office worker asked.

Shino went into his pocket, pulled out his I.D., and showed it to the worker.

"Ok then," the office worker said as she held out a form, "Sign here please."

Shino signed his name on the line, and after finding out which room Hine was in, she walked over to the intercom and clicked on the room number, "Mrs. Lopez," she said.

"Yes," Hine's teacher, Mrs. Lopez said over the other line.

"I need Hine to check out," the assistant said.

"She's on her way," Mrs. Lopez said.

"Ok, thank you," the assistant said.

After a few minutes, Hine saw her father, and ran towards him, "Daddy," she exclaimed.

Shino reached down to pick up his daughter, and carried her out the door, "There's my little girl," he said.

"What are you doing here," Hine asked, "I had just finished that test when I got called up here?"

"Daddy will explain everything," Shino said as he walked out the front door of the school, "Right now, how about lunch?"

"Where," Hine asked as they walked up to Shino's truck.

"Anywhere you want," Shino said as he opened the door, and placed her in the back seat.

"Gnome'Donalds," Hine asked as she buckled herself in.

"Absolutely," Shino said, "You want to get mommy, and we'll eat together?"

"Yes," Hine exclaimed.

"Let's go," Shino said as he shut the door.

As Rock's niece and nephew were arriving home when the smelled something that got them very, very, very excited.

"CAKE," they both yelled as they dropped their bags.

As soon as they ran into the kitchen, they heard their uncle exclaim, "Freeze," he didn't look up from his work on the cake, leveling a large wooden spoon at the two of them, "Touch the cake before tonight, and you don't get a piece."

"What's this," Zunagu asked as she walked in to see her brother finishing the border on the cake he was making.

"It's a wedding cake," Rock said as he lifted the cake up on the presentation dish to check his work: not perfect, but in no way bad, "It's time I used all the knowledge I learned from Bismark for something practical."

"I still can't believe he taught you that," Zunagu said, "You were an apprentice at his bakery for about two years before you went off to college."

"And I learned as much as I could from him," Rock said, "You know how good I was when I worked there."

The cake was a two-tiered cake that was covered in a gloriously shiny white icing that looked like it could have been made out of pure snow. The roses he put on top of the cake were made of red icing, but since he had no tools, the petals were very spirally, and not spread out like a regular rose.

"Ok, ok," Zunagu asked, "But whose wedding is it for?"

"Naruto and Hinata's," Rock said as he looked up at his sister, "We're being deployed early. Naruto and Hinata called, and they want to get married before we leave so they can have a prolonged honeymoon when they get back."

"Mommy, what's a honeymoon," Arund asked.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Zunagu said, "They're having their wedding tonight?"

"On the river," Rock said as he covered the cake in the glass case that neither his niece or nephew could lift, and turned toward them, "And we're going."

"We're going," Arund asked, "Why?"

"Because we need to be there to support Uncle Naruto and Aunt Hinata," Rock said, "Besides, you already accepted being the ring bearer."

"I did," Arund asked.

"Yes, you did," Rock said, "Plus," he knelt down, and turned his attention to the cake, "That's a Naughty Royal fudge cake with royal vanilla icing."

"Where's my suit," Arund asked.

_How was that_…


	6. The Wedding

**Part 6 – Wedding**

The venue they had for their wedding was on a glass-enclosed riverboat that was big enough for all of them, and a few more. But since it was a small ceremony, they simply hung some curtains and prepared for the wedding.

As Naruto was getting dressed in his naval uniform, he looked up at Sasuke, and asked, "Is she here?"

"She's across the hall," Sasuke said, "Take a moment and breathe. This is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. Enjoy it!"

"I'm nervous bro," Naruto said, "I'm getting married today, and tomorrow we ship out for a foreign country full of individuals that want to kill us…"

"Hey," Sasuke said as he put his hand on his best friend's shoulder, "Don't think about that. You're going to marry Hinata, and have a wonderful life. Because I'm done taking care of your sorry ass."

"Your best man's a dick," Shino said as he walked in wearing his own dress uniform, his Sergeant rank stood out against his dark blue uniform.

"There's one of my groomsmen," Naruto said, "Now where's my flower girl?"

"With your fiancée's bridesmaid," Shino said as he sat beside Naruto, "Everything's gonna be perfect. I got Hine a very nice white dress at ELFPennies. She seemed very happy about being asked to be the flower girl."

"That goes double for Arund," Rock said as he walked in carrying five glasses, followed by Sai who was carrying a bottle of liquor whose color was as close to black as you could get without being black.

"What the hell is that," Shino asked.

"A little pre-wedding libation," Sai said as Rock passed around their glasses, and Sai poured each of them a glass, "Being as we weren't able to have a bachelor party, me and Rock thought a little mid-level camaraderie before the wedding might be in order. Just one shot."

"Alright," Naruto said as he put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "Best man leads the toast."

"Ok then," Sasuke said as he held up the glass, "To Naruto, and his new life with his new wife," he looked over at his friend, "You've saved my life more times than I can count, and I will always be grateful. You're the best sniper I've ever led, the best XO I've had, and my best friend, my brother. I will always have your back if you always have mine. To Naruto."

"Naruto," they all said as they cheered their glasses, and took a swig.

But as soon as the liquor touched their tongues, their immediate reaction was to spit it out.

"Good shit," Sasuke said as he coughed from the horrid burning taste in his mouth, "What's the expiration date on that?"

There was almost nothing that separated that from the type of spirit that is used to clean brushes. Not to mention the unbearable burning sensation that came as soon as the liquid touched your tongue. Then the taste which was unbelievably metallic, like it had been fermented in a rusty barrel for twenty years.

Sai looked at it, "Not for another month," he said.

"Then what is it," Sasuke asked as he snatched the bottle from his hands.

Sasuke and Naruto's jaws almost came unattached when they saw the label which read, in big, bold, capital gold letters against the gray background **'BLACK THUNDER CRASH'**.

"Black Thunder Crash," Naruto asked.

"You bought a liquor made by fucking dwarves," Sasuke asked.

"I went to a dwarven liquor store," Sai said, "I asked him to get me his best."

"Then he played you," Sasuke said, "Like a lute."

"Yep," Sai said.

"You boys ok over here," Ino asked.

"We will be once we get some water," Shino said as he walked out to look for some.

"What's wrong," Ino asked.

"You went with Sai to get this right," Sasuke asked as he held up the bottle.

"Yes," Ino said.

"Then tell me, why did he get this," Sasuke asked as he handed the bottle to Ino.

"Good gosh," Ino said, "I didn't know this was what we got. The liquor store owner brought it out in a paper bag and said it was absinthe."

"That would explain it," Sasuke said as he took the bottle back before looking at Naruto, "I think I know what we can do with this, however."

"What," Naruto asked.

"How about we throw it in the river," Sasuke asked, "See how the mermaids like it."

The team laughed as Shino returned with a few bottles of water that the team drank greedily.

"Thanks," Naruto said.

"But seriously, we can hook this to the back of your bike, and make a trail out of the liquid instead of using a bunch of tin cans," Sasuke said.

"Not a bad idea," Naruto said, "And speaking of good ideas. Me and Hinata were wondering if you would give her away since her father can't make it?"

"It would be an honor," Sasuke said.

"Then should we get started," Ino asked.

"Let's," Naruto said.

Naruto walked up to the front of the boat where the base's chaplain and Naruto's mentor, elvish Captain (Colonel) Iruka Umino was waiting.

"Congratulations," Iruka said as he put his hand on the shoulder of the only like-son figure he had.

"Thank you," Naruto said as he grabbed Iruka's hand.

As the music started playing, Shino led Rock and Sai down the center of the tables. All three of them wearing their dress uniforms, and carrying their hats underneath their arms.

As they stood to the side of Naruto, Tenten led Zunagu and Ino toward the front. They all wore white, knee-length dresses, and carried dark blue and yellow flower bouquets.

As the stood opposite from Shino, Rock, and Sai, Sakura walked up to stand across from where Sasuke would be standing. Her ankle-length white dress created a very nice compliment to her pink hair.

It was then that Hine walked toward the front, scattering flower petals behind her. Her white dress looked like something you might see a girl her age going to Easter service in. Following closely behind her was Arund who was dressed in a small boy's suit that you could pick up at any local ELFPennies. The rings were sitting on a very nice velvet pillow that had the team's insignia of a round table with various knights standing around with their king at the front imprinted on the front.

As they took their places at the front by their parents, the musicians started playing, "Here Comes the Bride".

It was then that Sakura waved her hands which glowed a slight greenish color, and parted the curtains to see Hinata standing there in a lovely white wedding dress that had a very short train so that the bridesmaids didn't have to carry it. Her hair was tied upwards in a Japanese bun, and she was carrying a very beautiful bouquet of white roses. Standing next to her was Sasuke who took her arm to escort her to the front of the boat.

When Naruto saw his wife, the air was nearly completely sucked out of his lungs. He had never seen her look more beautiful.

Sasuke had his tail tucked into a small pouch that ran down the back of his right leg. The pouch was standard on most Tiefling uniforms and actually didn't take up much room.

As they walked up to the front, Sasuke gently hugged Hinata and gave her to Naruto who put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder as Sasuke did the same.

Sasuke then walked over to stand opposite from Sakura who smiled at him.

As Naruto and Hinata turned toward Iruka, he smiled as he began, "Dearly beloved," he said, "Great friends and battle brothers. We are gathered here on this boat, on this river to join Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyūga in the sacred bond of matrimony. You two, I know have been through so much," he turned toward Naruto, "Naruto, through the fires of the military, you have been hardened into a strong warrior. I know that military life is hard, but being a special operator is a challenge that I have encountered before. During my stationing in various warzones, I know a thing or two about Special Forces soldiers marrying women who didn't grow up in the military. A marriage like this has a few things to succeed: love, understanding, and mutual respect. I have known many couples that didn't have those, and I've known just as many who did. But you have something that they didn't: history. You've known Hinata since the two of you were young, and I think it's safe to say, you have the tools to succeed," he then turned toward Hinata, "Hinata, I think it's also safe to say you know what you're getting into because you're marrying this knucklehead."

"Yea, yea, very funny," Naruto said.

"But I do know that with military wives, most of them haven't known their spouses as long as you have known Naruto," Iruka said, "I know what it's like to wait for someone you love to be away for a long time. And you have one thing that I didn't have: understanding. You understand that what Naruto is doing needs to be done, I didn't, and that relationship I had suffered. Now that I'm in the military, I understand. Being as you're not a military child, you having the kind of understanding that you have is an essential benefit to your marriage. Which is why I have faith that your marriage will succeed," he then looked at both of them, "As I understand, you have vows you'd like to say to each other?"

Naruto and Hinata turned toward each other, and Naruto began, "Hinata when I first asked you out, I wasn't sure you'd say yes. When you did, I couldn't have been happier, and I swore I could never be that happy ever again. But I now know how wrong I was. Because I can't be any happier than I am right now. When I became a member of the Knights, and you understood, I was overjoyed. Not a lot of women would put up with that, but you have. Aside from Sasuke, you're my absolute best friend, and I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have standing in front of me than you. I swear to you, I will be the best husband and protector I can be."

Hinata smiled as she began, "Naruto, I wasn't in a military family like you, but I did have a very difficult upbringing. My father was never a good man, as you know, which is one of the reasons I'm sort of glad he's not here," everyone chuckled a little, "When I met you, and you understood what it was like having a difficult upbringing, I thought I had found myself a good friend. The day you asked me out was the day I was going to ask you out. When you say that that was the happiest day of your life, until now, that goes double for me. Right now as we go onto another chapter in not your life, or my life, but our life, ready to support you all the way, I couldn't be happier. I promise to you, I will always try to understand when you say what you have to do is necessary, and I will always be there for you."

"Very nice," Iruka said before turning back toward Naruto, "Now, do you, Naruto Uzumaki take Hinata Hyūga to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Naruto said.

Iruka then turned toward Hinata and asked, "Do you, Hinata Hyūga take Naruto Uzumaki to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Hinata said.

Iruka then turned toward Arund, "Arund, if you would," he said.

Arund walked up to Sasuke who reached down, and picked up the rings, "Thank you," he said.

"Best man, if you would," Iruka said before Sasuke handed Naruto and Hinata their rings, Iruka then turned toward the couple, "I think you know what's next."

"With this ring, I thee wed," Hinata said as she slid Naruto's wedding band onto his finger.

"With this ring, I thee wed," Naruto said as he slid Hinata's wedding band onto her finger.

"By the power vested in me, I declare you husband and wife," Iruka said, "You may kiss the bride."

Naruto lifted the veil, and they shared the first kiss of many that would mean so much more than any other kiss they had shared before.

As the party clapped, Naruto and Hinata turned toward their friends and hugged each one of them.

The cake that Rock made was in no way Cake Boss material, but it could have passed for a very, very high-end cake made by another fancy baker in the country.

Naruto and Hinata cut it together before feeding each other a piece, and they managed to do it without spilling any on their rented wedding outfits

However, Arund and Zorand were a little less clean with their eating: their outfits had to be scrubbed by hand by Rock and Zunagu when they got home.

The first song they danced to was a very nice jazzy tune that could have been played at any wedding, but it was in no way a traditional wedding song because of the tempo of the music.

Arund wasn't much of a dancer, but being as he had to dance with Hine, it was not so bad, but a little awkward being as Hine was about six inches taller than him.

After their wedding, Naruto and Hinata changed into a still-formal, but less wedding-esq ensemble so they could travel to their honeymoon more safely.

As they walked out to Naruto's bike, they saw Sasuke strapping the bottle that Sai bought to the back of the bike.

"Think this'll work," Naruto asked as he walked up to his best man.

"It should," Sasuke said as he pointed at the cork he put in the bottle, and to the string, he put through it, "This little string should pull the cork out cleanly as you drive away."

Naruto climbed onto the bike and Hinata sat behind him, clutching onto him as tight as she could before Naruto fired it up.

As the two of them drove off, everyone gathered there holding onto the rope attached to the cork, and as they continued driving, the cork popped out, and the bottle of horrid liquor began leaving a small trail behind the bike.

_How's that for a quick military wedding_…


	7. Deployment

**Part 7 – Deployment**

Being as Naruto and Hinata decided to get married right away, the two of them didn't have time to plan out a big, extravagant honeymoon. But with a little help from their friends, and nice city-view hotel with a California King sized bed.

Needless to say, there are many ways that elves are better than humans, one being stamina. Being half-elf, Naruto had plenty of stamina to keep up with Hinata throughout the night.

There were a few things they would have to clean up before they left to arrive at the base. The bed was a complete mess, sheets and pillows thrown everywhere, clothes thrown all over the floor, and the two of them were so tangled in the sheets like a knot. After the night they had, you'd think they'd want to sleep in, but the alarm that Naruto set up wok him from his sleep.

"Morning," Hinata said as she smiled at her newly-wed husband, "Mr. Uzumaki."

"Good morning to you," Naruto said, "Mrs. Uzumaki. How was our little impromptu first honeymoon?"

"It was wonderful," Hinata said, "Right about now, we have a serious decision to make about what to do when it comes to our second honeymoon."

"When we get back from deployment, I promise I'll throw you the best after-wedding ceremony anyone's ever had," Naruto said, "And we'll have the best honeymoon ever."

"That can wait until you get back," Hinata said, "In the meantime, do you want to get ready, together?"

"You know nothing will make me happier," Naruto said as he picked up his wife, and carried her toward the shower.

***I will get into some detail later, SOME. It's December, a hallowed month, and I have rules. No scenes that could possibly get me in trouble with upper management. I made that mistake once, and I won't do it again. But NEVER during December or April.**

_Shino_…

Hine walked into the kitchen to see her father fixing their breakfast with her mother, "Good morning baby," Tenten said as she looked up at her daughter.

"Good morning mommy," Hine said as she took her seat at the table.

Shino walked over to her, and placed the breakfast he made in front of each of them: two eggs cooked sunny-side-up, two slices of thick-cut bacon, bread, and a slice of Swiss cheese.

"This is an inevitability isn't it," Hine asked, "You going away more frequently after the bad men attacked New Orleans?"

"No," Shino said as he grabbed Hine's hand, "This will probably never happen again. I promise you right now, when I come back, I won't go away for a long time for an even longer time."

"You swear," Hine asked.

"On my honor," Shino said as he raised his hand, "Right now, we have to eat because we have to meet your uncles at the airport in an hour."

"Ok," Hine said as she picked up her knife and fork, and began eating.

_Rock_…

Arund and Zorand walked into the living room to see their uncle was sitting on the couch waiting for the two of them.

"Uncle Rock," Arund asked as he walked up to him.

"It's good to see you two," Rock said as he looked over to see him, and patted the side of the couch to signal them to join him, "Take a seat, there's something I have to tell you."

Arund and Zorand sat next to their uncle, "What's wrong," Arund asked.

"You know that I have to go away for a while," Rock asked.

"You have to go fight bad guys, right," Arund asked.

"Yes," Rock said, "Right now, many other soldiers have to leave their families as well. You know that me and your mother are trying to make sure Barben gets plenty of sleep?"

"Yes," Arund and Zorand said.

"While I'm gone, it's going to be up to you two to help your mom," Rock said, "Since I'm not going to be here, you two are going to be the only support system that your mother has. I'm counting on your two to be there when your mother needs you. Can you do that?"

"We can do that," Arund said.

"Good," Rock said, "Cause I'll be video-calling back every week. And I better hear that you two are not acting up."

"Why not," Arund asked.

"Because then you'll have to face the tickle monster," Rock said as he pounced on his nephew, and began attacking his ribs with his hands.

"NO, NO," Arund exclaimed, "Stop!"

It was then that Zorand jumped on Rock, and the three of them started rolling on the floor as Zunagu came into the living room holding Barben, and smiled as she saw her brother and children having the last bit of fun they could have before Rock went off to another country.

_Sai_…

Sai woke to the smell of breakfast being cooked, as he swung his feet off the side of the bed, and walked over to the entrance to the other room, he heard the sizzle of breakfast sausage in a pan.

As he entered into the other room, Ino was in there cooking breakfast for the two of them.

Ino turned around to see her boyfriend, and smiled when she said, "Good morning."

"Morning to you as well," Sai said as he walked up to her, and kissed her on the top of her head, "You're looking nice today."

"And so are you," Ino said as she leaned back into Sai's chest, "I wish you didn't have to go. I was planning on us enjoying a few days alone together."

"I was looking forward to those days," Sai said, "This whole situation going on in New Orleans is crazy. Right now, this war is going to be vicious. We have so many soldiers around the world heading to Africa. But to think we have to leave you guys so early is what hurts me. I want to be here with you."

"You'll be with me in a few months," Ino said, "Don't think about that right now. We're together, we're happy, and we're about to have ourselves an amazing breakfast. Perk up."

Sai chuckled before kissing Ino once more as she scooped the food she was making onto the plates she had placed just off to the side of the stove.

The two of them walked over to the couch to enjoy their breakfast, and watch a little TV before Sai had to head off to get dressed.

_Sasuke_…

Sasuke was cooking breakfast for himself and Sakura when Sakura looked up from her newspaper to say, "You boys did a good job last night with Naruto and Hinata's wedding."

"Naruto is my brother," Sasuke said, "And Hinata is your sister. It was the least we could do for them."

"It's weird," Sakura said, "Back when I first met Hinata, I thought she was a scared little girl. Now she's like my sister, and I couldn't be happier to call her my best friend."

"I thought the same about Naruto," Sasuke said, "I honestly thought he was the biggest goofball ever. Now he's one of the few friends I can actually rely on."

"And me," Sakura said, "Am I one of those friends?"

"You're at the top of that list," Sasuke said.

"Thanks, babe," Sakura said, "So tell me. What do you think you're going to be doing over in Africa?"

"Mostly decapitation strikes," Sasuke said, "No doubt we'll be put on reserve in case they need anything minor done in preparation of some kind of invasion. I seriously doubt we'll be doing much of anything except sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing."

"I'm sorry it's like that for you boys," Sakura said.

"It's like that for us because of our races," Sasuke said as he walked over to the table with the scrambled eggs he made for the two of them, and placed some on her plate, before placing some on his own, "The military isn't an instrument for social change, but then again, what is?"

As Sasuke walked back to the stove and placed the pan in the sink Sakura spoke up, "Do you think there could be a possibility that you could get someone sympathetic to the Knights?"

"Nope," Sasuke said, "Major Hatake sent over the roster on whose flying out last night. They have Lieutenant Colonel Ebisu Starr leading the Special Forces units into Kandra. He's beyond by-the-books, and he prefers to send in either human or elvish units rather than other units."

"That sucks," Sakura said as Sasuke joined her at the table.

"Yea," Sasuke said as they began eating, "It does."

_One hour later_…

As Naruto was pulling up to the base, he could see that Sasuke, Shino, Rock, and Sai were already there with their families.

Sasuke removed his bag from the trunk of his car and looked over at Sakura who hugged him as tight as she could. Sasuke hugged her back and held her as long as he could before pulling apart and kissing her.

"Try not to miss me too much," Sasuke asked.

"You're not even gone, and I already miss you," Sakura said.

"Please promise me you won't do anything reckless while I'm gone," Sasuke asked.

"You know I won't," Sakura said, "Take good care of yourself over there."

"I promise," Sasuke said.

Shino reached down to lift Hine onto his arm, so she could hug him around the neck, "You going to be a good girl for mommy while I'm gone," he asked.

"No," Hine said.

"Good, that's what I expect," Shino said as he hugged his daughter with a chuckle, and she hugged him back, laughing.

As they pulled apart, Shino looked down at his wife and leaned down to give Tenten a loving kiss.

"Promise me you'll take good care of yourself over there," Tenten asked.

"I promise," Shino said, "You take good care of yourself and Hine while I'm gone."

"We can take care of ourselves very well," Tenten said, "We'll wait for you."

"I won't be long," Shino said as he hugged Tenten, "I promise I won't keep you waiting."

As Naruto was getting his bag off his bike, Hinata hugged him like she was afraid he was going to fly away if she let go.

"We just got married, and now you have to go," Hinata said, "It's not fair."

"I know it's not," Naruto said as he hugged his newly-wed wife back as tight as he could, "I want to stay with you, and enjoy all the time we have together. Right now, I don't want you to think about that. I want you to think about what's going to happen when I get home."

"I can't wait," Hinata said as she kissed Naruto.

As Sai placed his bag next to him, he turned toward Ino who held out her hands which Sai took, "When you get back, we're going to have a lot of making up to do," she said.

"I know," Sai said as he put his forehead against Ino's, "I promise to make a call home every week. I'll miss you like crazy."

"I'll miss you even more," Ino said.

"No, I'll miss you even more," Sai said.

"I hope so," Ino said as she kissed him.

Rock knelt down to his niece and nephew, and hugged the two of them, "You guys be good for your mom while I'm gone," he said, "She'll need your help in keeping the house and your brother in order."

"We'll be good while you're gone," Arund said.

"I hope so," Rock said as he looked over at his nephew, "You guys know how much I love you. I'll miss you every day, and I promise I'll call as often as I can."

"We'll wait for those calls," Zorand said.

"I hope so," Rock said, "I know the one thing you'll miss above all else is my cooking."

"You know that," Arund said.

"Ok," Rock said as he kissed his niece and nephew on the top of their heads before turning to his sister, "You'll take good care of them, right?"

"Of course I will," Zunagu said, "Will you take good care of yourself?"

"Yes," Rock said, "I love you."

"I love you too," Zunagu said as she hugged her brother.

As they pulled apart, Rock turned toward Arund who laughed when his uncle reached down to grab his little hand.

"You be good for mom too," Rock said, Arund giggled as Rock leaned in to kiss him on the forehead, "I love you, little man."

The team picked up their bags and walked toward their cages. Getting onto a military aircraft in civilian clothing is not exactly regulation so they had to get changed, as well as everyone else who was getting on the plane with them.

The plane was a Lockheed C-130 Hercules that would have two refueling missions in order to get to their destination.

As they were boarding the plane, Sasuke fully expected to see Ebisu standing on the ramp of the plane, but who he saw came as a big surprise for not only him, but everyone else.

It was Brigadier General Jiraiya White, one of the few human generals who were sympathetic to the Knights, and actually mentored all five members of the team when they first joined.

"Morning, Lieutenant," Jiraiya said.

"General," Sasuke said as he saluted him, "Where's Lieutenant Colonel Starr?"

"Reports are he got a little toasted last night, and took a swim in the river," Jiraiya said, "Poor guy's resting in Chicago Central with pneumonia. Since he couldn't make it, I came in his place."

"At least that's something," Naruto said, "Someone who cares about his men."

"Don't talk about Starr that way," Jiraiya said, "At least not while we're on base."

Sasuke, Naruto, and Jiraiya laughed as the climbed into the plane, and took their seats for takeoff.

_Off to Africa_…


	8. Delayed Departure - Part 1

**Part 8 – Delayed Departure – Part 1**

Being as the Kandra Republic shared a border with the Congolese Confederacy, it was the most logical place for a staging area.

The staging area was made up of mostly inflatable buildings, and shipping containers that had the sides cut out.

Sasuke's team, being in good standing with Jiraiya, they managed to get a decent inflatable room that they set up a few cots in.

It was only temporary as they were only there for a week before they moved out to begin their invasion.

"You think Jiraiya will go with this plan of yours," Naruto asked as the two of them sat on their cots, going over the proposal Sasuke was going to submit to Jiraiya for their incursion into the Kandra Republic.

"If he doesn't then we'll be reduced to bush-burning," Sasuke said, "If no one else has proposed this, then we're sure to be the one that gets the job."

"Ok," Naruto said, "I hope you're right."

Sasuke and Naruto stood up and walked out of their team's quarters toward the Jiraiya's command tent.

The two of them, along with everyone else there were dressed in the military's standard TRU-SPEC ACU waterproof ECWCS pants, Sierra Sole ACU boots, and TRU-SPEC ACU Multicam combat shirts.

As they walked up to the command tent, they saw several members of MARSOC playing basketball in the courtyard they set up just outside the command center, and as they walked up, Captain Neji Hyūga of the 75th Ranger Regiment, 2nd battalion walked out to see them.

"Lieutenant Uchiha," Neji said.

"Captain," Sasuke said as he gave Neji a little salute, and shook his hand, "You just finish your pitch?"

"Yep," Neji said.

"You want to tell us," Sasuke asked.

"No matter how much I want to, you know I can't," Neji said, "But good luck to you."

"Thanks," Sasuke said as he slapped Neji on the shoulder, "Best of luck."

As they walked up to the door, one of the elvish Marines looked over his shoulder at the two of them and spoke up, "Hey red-skin," he said, "I'd hate to burst your bubble, but that's not the mess-tent. That's General White's tent. Special Forces only."

Sasuke punched in the number on the command pad, and as the door unlocked, Naruto turned around and flipped him off.

"Lieutenant," Jiraiya said as he looked up to see Sasuke enter, "Good to see you."

"General," Sasuke said as he and Naruto stood at attention in front of him.

"At ease," Jiraiya said, "So give me your pitch. I've heard a lot of different pitches, your friend, Captain Hyūga just proposed using the town of Tani as a stronghold. Another proposed the idea of taking the town of Ligou. I've heard different plans from different soldiers," Jiraiya gestured toward the map on his desk, "So what do you have in mind?"

Sasuke walked up to the map and pointed at a small symbol on the map between the western town of Tani, and the eastern town of Ligou.

"Mammenda Airbase," Jiraiya asked, "You do know Kandra Republic's 2nd, 3rd, and 5th airborne regiments are stationed there? Not to mention two of their attack helicopter battalions?"

"That's the point," Sasuke said as he pointed toward Tani, "If you send Captain Hyūga to Tani," he then pointed at Ligou, "Or whoever proposed sending troops to Ligou, and they get caught, where's help going to come from? We can take out their ability to send their choppers to attack our other teams."

"You and three others, plus one here," Jiraiya asked, "You do realize that's beyond crazy?"

"Yes, I do," Sasuke said before looking over at Naruto, "But I believe in my men," he then looked back at Jiraiya, "And so do you. But right now that's irrelevant because of the enemy we're facing. We're not dealing with humans, or orcs, we're dealing with goblins. That means two things: strength in numbers, and swift speed. Aside from that, goblins can see in the dark, but so can I. Any attack we commit against these creatures has to be faster than they can react. Anyone who'll tell you that this is just like Vietnam or any other conventional war doesn't know what they're talking about. Right about now over seventy-six thousand are dead because of six goblins. The reason we went to war instead of sending in a covert strike team to simply put a bullet in-between their tiny brains is because we know that it possibly won't work, and they'd retaliate. They knew that attacking us was a risky move, they tried to get us to surrender their former leader, and they failed. If we're going to get these little Oompa-Loompas, then we have to do things that normally sane people wouldn't."

"You know I've heard a different proposal from ten different Spec Ops soldiers," Jiraiya said, "Some of them are above your rank either by one or two levels. Most of them are humans, elves, or dwarves. Some of them have ten years of experience. But right now, Lieutenant Uchiha you're the only one who clearly sees the situation we're in. Right now we're facing a situation we haven't faced in just a few months shy of almost three decades. Our enemies are going to be wearing uniforms. They're going to be carrying weapons they're trained in, and they're going to have armored vehicles. In order for the invasion to succeed, we're going to need a Forward Operating Base. You think Mammenda Airbase is that location?"

"We're going to have to land troops somewhere," Sasuke said, "We can't use a road to land planes, so why not use an airstrip?"

"I'm not going to lie to you Lieutenant," Jiraiya said, "What you're proposing is risky, dangerous, and stupid. Even if you can accomplish this, there are odds of only four of you pulling this off without taking casualties…"

"Those odds are 100% of us coming back, with all due respect, sir," Sasuke said, "Ever since I joined the Knights, I haven't lost a single member of my unit, and I'm not going to lose a single member of this team during this deployment."

"You have confidence," Jiraiya said, "You've convinced me. Get with your team, and get a plan together. You leave tonight. You, Captain Hyūga, and Major Guy."

Sasuke and Naruto walked out to see that Captain Hyūga had made the soldier that made the 'red man' comment to Sasuke do pushups.

"He's back," Captain Hyūga said, "You can stop."

The soldier collapsed on the ground as Neji walked up to Sasuke, "How was it," he asked.

"Very well," Sasuke said as he put his hand on Neji's shoulder, "Congrats, we got it."

"We got it," Neji asked.

"Me, you, and Major Guy," Sasuke said, "Tip of the spear."

"So he approved my attack on Tani," Neji asked.

"And apparently Major Guy's plan to attack Ligou," Sasuke said, "As well as mine to take Mammenda Airbase."

"You want to take Mammenda Airbase," Neji asked.

"My friend, we have no experience doing this kind of fighting," Sasuke said, "Right now, the playbook has to be rewritten. Besides, if Mammenda Airbase is left alone, who's to say they won't call in reinforcements? Where do you think their best bet would be?"

"To call in a means of transport from the nearest airbase," Neji said as Sasuke removed his hand from Neji's shoulder to point at him, "I see what you're doing now."

"Nice," Sasuke said, "By the way," he turned his attention to Naruto, "Have you two talked?"

"About what," Neji asked.

"You couldn't have waited until after the mission," Naruto asked.

"He has to know," Sasuke said, "Better he know sooner rather than later."

"Know what," Neji asked.

Sasuke looked at Naruto who spoke up, "Me and Hinata got married right before we were deployed."

"You married my cousin without me there," Neji asked.

"You know there's nothing me and Hinata would have loved more than for you to have been there to give her away," Naruto said.

Neji sighed, "With everything going on, I can't blame you," he said, "I was given the same notice that you guys were. We're going to be here for at least six months."

"You'll still be able to give her away," Naruto said, "We're going to have a ceremony for all of our family when we get back stateside, and we'd be honored if you'd give Hinata away."

"It would be my honor to give her away," Neji said.

"Now that that's settled, what do you say we get to work," Sasuke asked.

"Let's," Neji said, "Big night tonight."

"Damn straight," Naruto said.

Sasuke and Naruto walked back to their tent to see Shino, Sai, and Rock were using the exercise equipment the soldiers had whipped up using what was lying around.

Shino was doing arm-curls using single rebar that was wrapped around a cinderblock. Sai was using a couple of sandbags as a weight to do pushups with. Rock meanwhile was using a couple of cinderblocks to anchor his feet to the ground while he did sit-ups.

"Hey boss," Shino said as he dropped the cinderblocks.

Sai shrugged off the sandbags, and Rock pulled his feet out of the blocks to look over at their boss.

"Hello boys," Sasuke said, "Seems having Jiraiya here was a blessing in disguise. We're going to be one of the first teams sent in."

The team cheered, "Fuck yeah," Shino said.

"Yea, don't cheer just yet boys," Sasuke said, "We're going to be dropped behind enemy lines late at night, and we're going to be facing an enemy that can spot movement in almost complete darkness. The margin for error here is almost zero."

"What's the objective," Rock asked.

"Mammenda Airbase," Sasuke said, "We're going to fly in tonight, airdrop into the AO, and hopefully secure the entire area."

"If we don't take that base, then the goblins can send in attack helicopters and more troops to fight against Captain Hyūga who is planning to attack the town of Tani," Naruto said, "Or to the town of Ligou which Major Guy is going to be attacking. Not to mention, Mammenda Airbase is just about the biggest military installation in the northern part of the Kandra Republic. We need a Forward Operating Base, and Mammenda Airbase has more than enough resources to supply that."

"Who're we going in with," Sai asked.

"We're it," Sasuke said, "Everyone else is going to be busy with the invasion. It'll be the four of us with Rock providing intel. We all know what tough little buggers goblins are. They grew up in caves for most of their lives, which means that their sight is superior to a human's. We get spotted, they'll shoot at us."

"What about the enemy numbers," Shino asked.

"They have at least seven hundred and fifty professionally-trained goblin soldiers," Sasuke said, "They'll have helicopters, machineguns, mortars, and armored vehicles. We're outnumbered and outgunned."

"Sounds like a target-rich environment," Shino said.

"Easy there Rambo," Sasuke said, "We might be bigger than these goblins, and we might be better equipped, but we can't get trigger happy. Our objective is to secure the airbase, but let's not forget that we can't get overconfident. Goblins don't like to surrender, and if we make one mistake, we can't just shoot out way out. Tonight there'll be no room for unnecessary risks, no room for heroics, and no opportunities to get trigger-happy. The Knights have never been in a situation like this before: we've had no opportunities to prove our worth: any opportunities to show that non-human or non-elven races can do just as well as any others. We do this right, and command might not look down on us so much. This is an opportunity to prove ourselves, let's not waste it."

"We won't," Shino said.

"Good," Sasuke said, "Anything else?"

"Just one more thing," Sai said, "Armaments?"

"The gear's in the tents," Sasuke said.

"Yes," Sai exclaimed.

_You'll love this_…


	9. Delayed Departure - Part 2

**Part 9 – Delayed Departure – Part 2**

That night, the team gathered up their gear to head for their objective.

They were gathered just outside of the vehicle depot where they would be departing for their transportation.

When they joined the Knights, they were told that since there would be so few of them, there was no oversight of what they would carry into battle, so they were allowed to carry any kind of weapon that the U.S. Military had in stock. That is of course when the U.S. didn't need plausible deniability.

Sai carried a Mark 14 MGL (Multi-shot Grenade Launcher) for any explosive needs, and as a backup carried a suppressed MP7A2 with a PEQ-IR designator, a MARS red-dot sight, and a forty-round magazine.

Shino was sporting a suppressed FN MK48 with a PEQ-IR designator, an angled foregrip, and a Trijicon ACOG sight.

Naruto customized an M1A with an EOTech MPO III close/long-range sight, a PEQ-IR designator, and a suppressor.

Sasuke meanwhile managed to get his hands on a Heckler and Koch HK433, and customized with a G36-style carry-handle, a Defcom XL200 grenade launcher, and a PEQ-IR designator.

As he was twisting the suppressor onto the end of his rifle, he saw Neji walking up to him, "Good evening, Captain," Sasuke said.

"Indeed," Neji said as he placed his SCAR onto his shoulder, "Still enjoying that 433?"

"You know it," Sasuke said as he placed the magazines for the HK433 into the slots on his vest, "You still enjoying that SCAR?"

"It works for what I need," Neji said as he pointed to the spot beside Sasuke, "May I?"

"Go ahead," Sasuke said as he pointed at the spot.

"What are you planning to do when you get to Mammenda Airbase," Neji asked.

"Blow shit up and don't apologize for it," Sasuke said.

Neji and Sasuke chuckled, "I have a similar plan," Neji said, "Standard sidearms?"

"If you haven't noticed," Sasuke said as he tapped the handle of his FN Five-Seven, "This unit is anything but standard."

"I figured," Neji said, "Did she look beautiful," Sasuke looked over at Neji, "Hinata? When you gave her away?"

"Very," Sasuke said, "You'll get to give her away when we rotate back home."

"Indeed," Neji said as he held his arm out which Sasuke grabbed, "Good luck, my friend."

"Back at you buddy," Sasuke said.

Sasuke and Neji walked toward their transports where their teams were waiting, and yet they both got very different responses when they returned.

The team needed to keep their pilots safe, so the obvious choice for them was a Pilatus PC-12 NGX. The plane was modified so that it would look like a civilian aircraft flying the flag of the Congolese Confederacy.

Naruto asked Sasuke as he walked up the stairs into the plane, "You ready to rumble boss?"

"Always brother," Sasuke said as he closed the stairs, and Naruto handed him the face veils the team hung from their helmets, similar to the ones used by Danish Frogmen.

Neji's team's breacher, Sergeant Ramone 'Zombie' Winters spoke up as Neji boarded their plane, "Whose the horny boy you were talking to earlier," he asked.

"A better man than you'll ever be," Neji said as he sat next to him, "That was Lieutenant Sasuke Uchiha. Saved my life on multiple, multiple occasions," he looked over at Ramone, and pointed at him, "He's one of the best, but they didn't put him in the Green Berets because he's red and has horns."

"You're going to stick up for him," Ramone asked.

"Like I said," Neji said, "He saved my life multiple times. Never let skin-color dictate how you look at other people. You'll go far in life if you obey that rule."

"Yes, sir," Ramone said as the plane began powering up.

Two hours later…

"What's this make boss," Sai asked, "Thirty, forty jumps?"

"I've lost count," Sasuke said, "Maybe we should start a tally system."

"On what," Shino asked, "We couldn't possibly do anything to our weapons."

"What about our bodies," Sasuke asked as he looked back at Shino, "You've got enough free real-estate on your body. Maybe we could set up a tattoo plan?"

"Maybe," Shino said, "By the way, what's the word on calls to home?"

"General White has given us free-range," Sasuke said, "You'll be able to be there for your child's birth."

"I wish I could be there in person," Shino said.

"We all do," Naruto said as he put his hand on Shino's shoulder, "You're forgetting how long human and goliath, or in your case, half-goliath gestation periods are. It's been four months, and the baby isn't due for another six. We'll be home by then."

"I hope," Shino said, "Life has a way of turning things around on you."

"Tenten's a healthy woman," Sai said, "You've been through this once. Don't forget that Hine was born while you were on deployment. You still got to witness her birth."

"I still should have been there," Shino said, "She's my wife."

"You'll be there," Sasuke said, "You don't have to worry."

The pilot turned back toward Sasuke, "Lieutenant," he said, "Drop zone in five mikes."

"Got that," Sasuke said as he turned to the team, "They're playing our song boys. Let's get our hats on."

The team replaced the 100% oxygen tanks with the standard-issue oxygen bottles on the HALO/HAHO breathing masks over their faces, and opened the valve on their oxygen tanks.

"First big operation," Naruto said, "Let's do this."

"Let's represent the Knight boys," Sasuke said as he held his fist out to them.

"Represent," Naruto, Shino, and Sai exclaimed as they connected their fists' to Sasuke's.

"BREAK," they all yelled.

"Three mikes," the pilot said.

Sai stepped out of his seat and crouch-walked into the area in the back where they would jump.

Shino joined him, followed by Naruto and Sasuke who took their parachutes as the Air Force Sergeant on deck passed them out.

"Equipment check," Sasuke exclaimed as he tapped the straps of his chute.

Naruto turned around as Sasuke quickly examined his chute while Shino did the same for Sai.

As soon as he confirmed, he turned around so Naruto could do the same, and Shino turned around so Sai could check his chute.

After they were confirmed, the pilots spoke up, "One mike!"

The Sergeant looked at Sasuke who nodded, he then undid the latch on the cargo door, and as he lifted it, the team was blasted with the sensation of going almost 300 miles an hour. The plane instantly felt it as it bumped slightly, the Sergeant would have probably gone out the window if he wasn't strapped in.

Sasuke lined up at the front of the group, cardinal rule of the Knights, CO always goes first during a HALO jump.

The pilot reached up and flipped the jump light on. As soon as Sasuke saw that green light, he was out the door and was followed by Naruto, who was followed by Shino, who was then followed by Sai.

A HALO jump is very risky on a count you have to keep an eye on your altitude. A freefall from 12,000 feet is over in about thirty seconds. Shino being half-goliath and in essence, a walking wall of muscle weighed about two hundred and sixty-one pounds in his equipment. At top speed, he would reach 864.49 (rounded up) miles per hour during his freefall. All of this meant that his fall would only be about ten seconds (rounded up) longer than a free fall from 12,000 feet.

As a rule, Sasuke made sure that Naruto wore an altimeter at all times, being he was a sniper, he knew what to look for.

Naruto kept an eye on his altimeter, and once it got to just above 3500, he grabbed the cord on his chute and yanked it.

Sasuke followed suit, then Shino, and finally Sai.

The trees they floated into were thick-brushed, and very high, which makes it a good thing that they didn't get caught in the limbs on the way down.

As soon as they landed, and they shrugged off their chutes, they gathered up their weapons, and rallied on Sasuke who pressed the talk button on his radio, and asked, "TOC, this is Knight 0-1, the griffin has landed."

"Roger 0-1," Rock said, "Be advised, you have four hours before the hammer drops. Command is getting antsy."

"Copy that," Sasuke said, "We're moving the Round Table."

The team picked up their gear and proceeded toward Mammenda Airbase.

_One hour later_…

Most of the goblins that lived in Kandra were either green or orange, most of the goblins at this airfield were green, but there were a few orange ones mixed in.

Two of them were patrolling the north perimeter of Mammenda Airbase which was covered in a thick wall of trees.

Both of them were green, had black hair, but carried different weapons.

The one on the right barely had time to finish his sentence before the side of his head exploded like a water balloon.

His partner turned only to have a 4.6x30mm round slam into his chest which opened his back like a watermelon being dropped onto solid concrete from a two-story building.

Shino and Sai quickly ran out, grabbing the bodies, and tossed them into the tree cover as fast as they could.

"Knight 0-3 to Command," Shino said, "Two hostiles down."

"Copy 0-3," Sasuke said, "You can move up, we'll cover you."

"Copy," Shino said as he signaled Sai out of their cover.

All four of them had covered their faces with the veils to break up the silhouette of their faces and shoulders so they wouldn't be recognized in uniform.

The planes the goblins would be using were old Soviet-bloc Foxhounds and Fencers. Being as they were about two feet shorter than the smallest person that ever flew one of those planes the little beasts raised the seats and pulled the steering column back. They also welded extension bars onto the pedals.

The helicopters they used were old Hips and Hinds, and they had given the choppers a very similar treatment that they had given the planes.

What was obvious about the aircraft was that the Soviet star was painted over with the symbol of the Kandra Revolutionary Army which was a black war mace that had four blunt flanges, and a single spike on the head against a red background.

Shino and Sai jogged up to one of the choppers, right about now there were no pilots around, so Sai went to work on their sabotage efforts.

One pound of plastic explosives, strapped to a five-minute timed detonator, hidden inside the wheel-well of the helicopters parked on the runway.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was spotting Naruto who was keeping an eye out for the two of them.

"Target in the tower," Sasuke said as he focused his M151 spotter scope on the goblin standing on the top of the control tower, "Range: three hundred and fifty meters. Wind slightly out the east, eight miles-per-hour."

Naruto adjusted his scope for three hundred and fifty meters, "Got it," he said.

"Send it," Sasuke said.

One squeeze of the trigger and the goblin flopped sideways onto the roof of the control tower.

"Target down," Naruto said.

"Knight 1, this is TOC," Rock said over the radio, "Command wants an update."

"Knight 3 and Knight 4 are working as fast as they can," Sasuke said, "At least seven helicopters are marked. We're working as fast as we can."

"TOC copies," Rock said.

"Knight 0-1 to Knight 0-3," Sasuke said.

"Go ahead, 0-1," Shino said as Sai began strapping the final chopper with one of their charges.

"Command is getting antsy," Sasuke said, "Give me status on the choppers."

"Knight 0-4 just finished," Shino said, "We're moving to the hangers."

"Roger," Sasuke said, "And you know we won't be able to cover you in there, so watch yourself."

"Copy that," Shino said.

As soon as Sai crawled out from underneath the chopper, Shino helped him to his feet, and the two of them proceeded to the hanger.

Arriving at the hanger, Shino reached up to turn the handle: locked.

"Knight 0-4 to 0-1," Sai said.

"Go ahead 0-4," Sasuke said.

"The drawbridge is up," Sai said, "Attempting to lower."

"Copy that," Sasuke said, "We'll cover you."

Sai knelt down to the door and pulled out a skeleton key, and as he twisted it in the lock, the door simply swung open.

"Knight 0-3 to 0-1," Shino said, "We are entering the castle."

"Roger that 0-3," Sasuke said.

The two of them entered to see the hanger had a couple of Goblin soldiers sitting with their back turned toward them. They were currently watching the African soccer league playing Brazil to advance to the finals.

Sai reached into his pack, pulled out two charges, and whispered, "We'll have better luck if we split up. I'll take the two on the left, you get the two on the right."

"Ok," Shino said as he let his MK48 hang from the strap, and pulled out his sidearm: a suppressed .44 magnum Desert Eagle with a black matte finish, "If you're compromised, shoot: sidearms only."

Sai pulled out his own sidearm: a suppressed Glock 17L MOS with a Leupold Delta Sight and a SureFire X300 weapon light.

Shino made a very careful effort not to make any kind of sound as he crouch-walked over to first of the planes, and attached the explosive inside the wheel-well.

As Sai was placing his, he looked up with his Glock when he heard something, only to see one of the goblins had dropped his drink.

Shino lowered his own weapon and signaled Sai up to the next set of planes.

After attaching the last of the charges, the hurried back over to the entrance as one of the goblins turned around to look at the plane.

_To be continued_…


	10. Delayed Departure - Part 3

**Part 10 – Delayed Departure – Part 3**

The goblin just barely missed seeing them as they took cover behind the hanger's office. Shino had swung around his MK48 in case he had to go loud, but as the goblin turned around to sit down to watch the game, he exhaled strongly.

"Let's go," he said.

"I'll go first," Sai said as they slowly crept out of the hanger, making sure to close the door behind them.

"Knight 0-3 to Knight 0-1," Shino said.

"Go ahead 0-3," Sasuke said.

"Tower raided," Shino said, "Moving to the second."

"Copy," Sasuke said, "But hurry up, we have an hour and a half until the hammer drops. I want this over with so we don't get caught with our pants down if the hammer drops early."

"Got that," Shino said, "We're going in."

As they were moving around, Naruto exclaimed into his radio, "Knight 0-3, freeze!"

Shino and Sai dropped into cover behind the hanger, "Knight 0-2, please advise," he said.

"Target on the search tower on the hanger," Naruto said, "He's looking your way."

"Copy that," Shino said, "We'll wait."

"Copy," Naruto said.

"I see him," Sasuke said as he aimed the spotter scope at the hostile on the roof, "Range: four hundred and six meters. Wind's shifted to the west: same mph."

The goblin was smoking a cigarette: he was apparently a career smoker as he knew how to make the smoke come out of his nose in small puffs.

"Got him," Naruto said after adjusting his scope.

"Send it," Sasuke said.

The bullet blew his hand apart like an over-filled balloon, and the side of his head exploded in a flurry of bones and blood.

"Nice shot," Sasuke said before reaching around to his radio, "Knight 0-3, you're clear."

"Copy that," Shino said as he and Sai continued toward the second hanger.

As they arrived, they found the hanger door was unlocked, but there were more guards inside this one than the last one.

"We'll have to be quick on this one," Sai said as he handed Shino another two charges.

"I'll cover you," Shino said as he swung around his MK48, "Get over there, and I'll follow when you're done."

"Got you," Sai said as he hurried over to the first set of planes.

Shino kept a very tight grip on his MK48, an LMG isn't the easiest thing to maneuver when using a belt.

As Sai strapped the planes with the charges, he ushered Shino over to him and raised his MP7 towards the goblins.

Shino made it over to the other set of planes and began strapping them with the remaining charges. It took only a few minutes to finish.

Shino signaled to Sai it was time to go, and the two of them quickly ran back to the door as one of the guards turned around to see the door closing.

"That's odd," he said.

"What," one of the other goblins asked.

"Just saw the door open," the one that saw the door open said as he swung around his AK74u, and jumped down, "I'll go check it out."

"Let it be Mudbug," the goblin said, "You're not going to find anything."

"Can't hurt to check," Mudbug said as he walked over to the door, and using the buttstock of his AK to open the door, he looked around outside to see nothing.

"Well," the other goblin asked.

"You were right," Mudbug said as he walked back inside to shut the door, "Wind must have blown the door open."

"Nothing out of the ordinary," the other goblin said, "I told you so."

"You were right this time," Mudbug said, "Guarantee you're going to be wrong about something in the near future."

Sai and Shino finally exhaled as they walked out from behind the far end of the hanger which they had to run to.

Sai and Shino shared a fist-bump before Shino reached up to his radio, and clicked the talk button, "Knight 0-3 to 0-1," he said.

"Go ahead, 0-3," Sasuke said.

"Castle raided," Shino said, "We're returning to Camelot. Cover us, please."

"Roger that," Sasuke said, "We'll cover you."

As Shino and Sai ran towards their second staging area, Naruto kept an eye on the tower, seeing a goblin emerging from the hatch to relieve the one he shot earlier of his duties.

"Tango, top of the tower," Naruto said.

"I see him," Sasuke said as he quickly zeroed in on the hostile, "Three hundred and fifty meters."

"I got him," Naruto said as he adjusted for wind, and fired as soon as the goblin saw his dead friend.

The goblin was hit center-mass in the chest which flung him sideways against the roof. The force of the round slamming into his torso produced a result similar to what would happen should a human get shot with a 50 caliber round. The round would open a wound channel that would effectively tear the torso in half.

"Target down," Sasuke said.

"Knight 0-1, we're clear," Shino said.

"Roger," Sasuke said.

"Knight 0-1 this is TOC," Rock said, "Hammer drops in ten mikes. What's your status?"

"Phase one complete," Sasuke said as he picked up his rifle, and stored the spotter scope in his pack, "Moving to phase two."

"Roger that," Rock said.

As the two of them moved through the trees, Sasuke's thoughts were on the explosives, almost nothing goes right during an operation. You can plan, and plan, and plan, but you cannot plan for everything.

Sai was an amazing demolitions expert and grenadier, so he hopped that Sai had properly calibrated the explosives.

As they arrived at the staging area, Sasuke looked across the runway, he saw Shino and Sai kneeling behind cover.

As he checked his watch, he signaled three minutes, and Shino gave him a thumbs-up.

Waiting around for something to happen is one of the hardest things you can do in the military. As you're sitting around, your mind is going a mile a minute, thinking about what's going to happen, how it's going to happen, and how it could possibly go wrong.

After those three minutes were up, Roc came over the radio, "Knight 0-1, this is TOC," he said, "The hammer has dropped."

"Roger that," Sasuke said.

Two minutes later, alarms began going off across the entire base as the soldiers from the towns of Tani and Ligou started to call in for support.

"Here we go," Naruto said as he looked down the runway to see the pilots running toward the hangers.

Seeing small goblins running at full speed was a sight to see as many of them looked like they might fall over because of how fast they were running, and the fact that many of them had barely had any time to fasten their boots on.

"Galahad," Sasuke said into his radio, "Start the timers on the choppers as they take off, and the timers on the planes when they leave the hangers."

"Roger," Sai said.

The charges were wired to several small detonators that Sai carried in his pack.

As he was placing them on the ground, a particularly goblin-like voice came over the loudspeaker, "All fighters to the choppers! All Pilots to your planes!"

Several squads of goblins began running out to the choppers with the pilots. Some of them were carrying AKMSUs and MK18s while some were carrying submachine guns and compact shotguns.

As the goblins crowded into the choppers, Sasuke noticed that about twenty of them were stuffed into each transport chopper, not exactly a tight fit for someone about three and a half feet tall, but still slightly cramped.

The choppers began lifting into the air as the planes began taxing onto the runways.

Sai placed the detonators on the ground in front of him, and with a simple squeeze, the timers began to count down.

After leaving the runway, and the planes began to taxi down the runway, Sai started flipping the switches.

Five minutes later, the team looked into the distance and saw the choppers start to explode one by one.

A little while later, the planes began exploding as well. Needless to say, one pound of plastic explosives wouldn't cause a Hollywood-style explosion that would vaporize the entire chopper or plane, but the initial explosion would possibly ignite a fuel line if it was close enough to it, and the blast wave from the explosion itself would effectively open a hole in the bottom of the aircraft that would be twice the size of the aircraft itself.

No aircraft or rather a metallic object could withstand that kind of force, and an opening that big? You'd have better luck turning that plane into the floor of some kind of floor for a wind-surfing vehicle. Needless to say however, no one could survive that, and if you did, you'd probably have massive internal injuries that would take something close to a miracle to survive, and the fall from a couple hundred feet up (if you were in the air) would be non-survivable unless you had a parachute.

"TOC, this is Knight 0-1," Sasuke said as he activated his radio, "We're moving on the objective."

"Roger that," Rock said.

As the team ran over to the side entrance to the airbase, Sasuke looked over to see two goblins running out onto the runway, turned to see then, and pulled out their side-arms, only for Sasuke to nail them with two bursts from his HK433.

Arriving at the door, Sasuke tapped the top of his fist against his helmet twice.

Sai walked around Shino to place a breaching charge on the door and yanked the cord as he took cover on the other side of Shino.

As the explosive went off, the team looked back at the door, and ran into the main building, taking down four goblins in the room they entered into.

They then walked into the main room where Sai instantly switched to his grenade launcher.

The goblins looked over to see men twice their size that had their faces hidden by dark face veils carrying large weapons entering their airbase.

"ALARM," one of them screamed as he reached into his side-arm holster to pull out his issued Glock 30, only to have Naruto nail him in the chest.

The ones on the next level up from them swung around their weapons, only for Sai to fire a 40mm grenade at them, killing three of them instantly, and sending the remaining four falling to the ground below.

A fall from about ten feet up wouldn't kill anybody, but if you had brittle bones or smaller bones you might break a few of them.

Needless to say, when the goblins hit the floor, they could all hear the sound of their own ribs cracking slightly.

Shino turned his attention toward a small group of goblins moving into firing positions on the second floor. His MK48 sounded like a nail gun being used on full auto (if that was possible).

The goblins went down like bowling pins as the rounds from Shino's LMG tore through their bodies like bb pellets through paper.

The team then moved onto the offices where many had taken up weapons.

One of the goblin officers came around the corner carrying a Serbu Super Shorty, and a single slug, barley missing Naruto who came around the corner to move toward the offices.

As the goblin pumped the shotgun, Naruto leaned around the corner with his S&W M&P handy and drilled three shots into his chest which dropped him like a stone.

"Clear," Naruto said as he moved up with Sasuke behind him.

As the team was moving down the hall, they were walking by a large window, and suddenly dove into cover as they saw a single barrel emerge from between the blinds that obstructed their view.

But as they did, one weapon didn't fire, eight weapons, most likely HK MP5s sent a barrage of 9mm rounds rushing past them.

As soon as the bullets stopped, Sasuke slapped Shino on the shoulder, and whispered, "Flash."

Shino dropped his pack and pulled out a single flash grenade which he handed to Sasuke.

He then tossed one to Sai who pulled the pin along with Sasuke and threw it at the curtains that were hanging on by small bits of plastic.

The grenades landed right at the feet of the goblins who weren't fast enough, and their see-in-the-dark eyes were suddenly flooded with an intensely bright light which caused all of them to become temporarily blinded.

Sasuke peered out from behind cover with his HK433 at the ready, and let off a single grenade from his XL200. Sai then followed his example and fired three grenades of his own.

The explosions from the grenades had sent the goblins, the chairs inside the office they were standing in, and shards of glass flying everywhere.

As Sasuke reloaded his XL200, he and the team walked up and began sweeping the remaining offices.

"First floor clear," Naruto said as he cleared the last office.

"Second floor," Sasuke said as he pointed at the staircase.

Shino walked up to the door, and as he gently pushed it aside, one of the goblins open fire on him, and what followed next was him ducking back into cover as a load of fuzz from his vest exploded in a large poof.

"I'm hit," Shino exclaimed.

"Shit," Sasuke said as he ran over to Shino, and looked over his jacket.

Sai pointed his MK 14 into the door and unloaded the remaining two grenades at the goblin.

_To be continued_…


	11. Delayed Departure - Part 4

**Part 11 – Delayed Departure – Part 4**

"He ok," Naruto asked.

Sasuke undid Shino's vest to see the bullet hadn't gone through, "You're good," he said as he helped Shino to his feet, "Kevlar saved your overgrown pale ass."

"Lucky me," Shino said as he zipped his vest back up.

"Let's keep moving," Sai said as he reloaded his MK 14, and swung around his MP7.

"Right behind you," Sasuke said as he followed Sai into the staircase.

As they made their way onto the second floor, the airport went in two directions.

"Clear left," Sai said.

"Clear right," Sasuke said, "Galahad, Gawain, take the left. Percival with me."

Sasuke and Naruto walked up to the offices down the right hallway, when they arrived, Sasuke motioned to the doors on the right.

The first door that Shino walked up to was soon destroyed as one of the goblins opened full-auto with an HK UMP.

As he went to reload, Shino peered through the hole the goblin made in the door, and damn-near tore him in half with a barrage of 7.62 bullets.

The fourth door that Sai opened nearly had his name on it as a single goblin opened fire with a compact, stockless Remington 870 MCS.

The shell missed Sai, and hit the wall next to him, allowing Sai to unload half his MP7 magazine into the green bugger's chest.

The first room that Naruto went to was empty, but the second had two goblins standing in there, opening fire with CAR-15s.

Naruto held his hand out to Sasuke who reached into his pack and tossed him a grenade.

"Frag out," Naruto exclaimed as he tossed the grenade through the door, and slammed it shut.

The goblins tried to take cover, but in a confined space like that, it was no use.

The metal shards inside the grenade are lethal enough as it is, but there is extra damage as the shockwave can break bone and rupture organs.

Naruto defiantly knew the explosion went off because the glass of the door exploded outwards, and he was sure if he so much as pushed on the door, it would have dropped clean off the hinges.

Sasuke threw open the last door and saw a single goblin holding an AK74SU. He pulled the trigger, only to realize he forgot to cock the rifle.

Sasuke simply leveled his HK433 at him and emptied the magazine into his tiny body.

Sasuke looked over at Naruto who simply nodded, "Let's head back to Shino and Sai," he said as he dropped the magazine from his rifle, and reloaded.

As the two of them rejoined their two companions, "We've had our own contact," Sai said, "You?"

"Yep," Sasuke said.

"Control tower," Shino said.

"Let's go," Sasuke said.

As they moved up to the door, Sasuke tapped lightly on his helmet, and Shino smashed his foot into the door as Sasuke charged in first to see it led to a staircase.

The team made their way up the stairs to see the control room was empty. There had to be a few there to direct air traffic, so they had to be hiding.

Sasuke motioned the team to throw a grenade into the room.

"Grenade ready," Sai said as he pulled out a single grenade, and gripped the pin.

"On three," Sasuke said as he gripped the knob.

"One," Sai said.

"Two," Sasuke counted.

"Three," Sai exclaimed as Sasuke suddenly pushed the door open as wide as he could, allowing Sai to throw his grenade into the room, and ducked as Sasuke slammed the door shut so hard the handle might as well have come off.

There were several screams as the grenade exploded, and a large dent appeared in the door.

Shino smashed his foot into the door, and the team charged inside, seeing the grenade pretty much destroyed everyone in the room.

There was one still alive, his uniform identified him as Lieutenant-General Gikx Stubtoe: the base commander. He was barely alive, blood oozing from his missing right leg and left arm.

He coughed blood and looked up to see the team entered. Reaching into his side-arm holster, he pulled out his Sig-Sauer P938 that had a gold-plated slide and trigger and aimed at the team.

He didn't have time to fire as Sasuke pulled out his Five-Seven, and fired two rounds into his skull.

"That's it," Sasuke said as he turned to his team, "We did it!"

The team started laughing as they sat back against the consoles, "Command is going to love us for this one," Naruto said.

"Yep," Sasuke said as he reached around to his radio, "TOC, this is Knight 0-1. The castle is ours. Repeat, the castle is ours."

"Roger that Knight 0-1," Rock said, "See you in a bit."

_Twelve hours later_…

The invasion of the Kandra Republic was what some might consider a success: 7,500 deaths on the Kandra Republic's side. About 150 deaths on the side of the U.S. side.

The first planes that flew into the Kandra Republic flew straight into the airfield and were instantly greeted by Sasuke, Naruto, Shino, and Sai waiting on the side of the tarmac.

As the back gate of the plane that touched down opened, General Jiraiya was the first to step out of the back of the plane.

"General, sir," Sasuke said as the team stood at attention in front of him.

"Hello Knights," Jiraiya said as he ushered for them to stand at ease, "Any problems?"

"Nothing worth mentioning," Sasuke said.

"Good," Jiraiya said, "Now, let's get this base turned into a FOB for us."

Setting up a forward operating base, even using a military building is a challenge, you don't know what software the hostile soldiers were using, if their barracks were livable, or if they left any surprises for the coming forces.

As they were moving their things into the bunk, Jiraiya walked up to them.

"Hello there boys," he said.

"Sir," Sasuke said as the team shot into attention in front of him.

"As you were," Jiraiya said as he ushered the team to get back to work.

"What's the word, boss," Sasuke asked as he placed the mattress on the bed frame the military provided for him.

"Besides the bird," Jiraiya asked, "Command is very pleased with what you've done here."

"That's good," Sasuke said as he fastened his sheets to the mattress.

"But you know the saying," Jiraiya said, "You do something well, and they expect you to do it again."

"They're sending us out again," Sasuke asked as he looked back at his CO.

"Not yet," Jiraiya said as he leaned against the side of the shipping container the army had turned into a small house.

It came complete with all the latest in Army house fashion: four beds for the team made of 2x4s, Wi-Fi, metal floors that'd be freezing cold at night, a door, and a window.

"Not yet," Naruto asked as he placed his pillow onto the bed.

"Right now most of our forces are engaged in minimal fighting on the front lines with the Kandra Republic Army," Jiraiya said, "It seems neither side is willing to make another move, just yet."

"Then we help set up base," Sasuke asked.

"Nope," Jiraiya said.

"Then what are we going to be doing," Sasuke asked.

"Helping our teams plan a move," Jiraiya said as he held out an intelligence file which Naruto walked up to him to see pictures of a train that had been outfitted with artillery cannons and machine guns, "CIA acquired these not two hours after you set off on your operation. KMR 4999, a GE Evolution ES40DC. Runs along the line between Masene and Silulu."

"Almost half the entire country," Sasuke said as he flipped through the pictures, "Not to mention that line runs right through Koras."

"Therein lies the problem," Jiraiya said, "Not only can this beast transverse the entire vertical length of the country, but she can also defend wherever she's at."

Sasuke handed the picture to Sai who examined the weapons they had on board, "155mm howitzers, 23mm anti-aircraft guns, and .30 caliber belt-fed machineguns," he said, "They've been building this bastard for a while now."

"That's what we thought as well," Jiraiya said, "It makes us wonder what else they could be hiding. But we don't have time to worry about that now because we're worried about what would happen if they unleash this on our forces."

"Let me guess," Sasuke said, "Destroying this thing is priority one before continuing."

"To this day I'm still surprised you're not in the Fortune Teller Division," Jiraiya said, "Next thing I hope you'll say is that money will fall from the sky," the team chuckled before Jiraiya continued, "Command wants to see a carefully drawn-up plan for putting this fucking train out of commission for good."

"We're going to need some backup," Sasuke said.

"You have it," Jiraiya said, "Captain Hyūga and Major Guy want a crack at this thing too. The Major has seniority so he has command."

"I have no problem with that," Sasuke said before he pointed to Rock, "He mentored this bastard so we should be able to work together. One question," he held up the picture of the train, "Where is this death machine?"

That evening, the team was gathered in one of the conference rooms that they had cleared earlier with Neji and Guy.

The train was being taken care of in a rail yard the Kandra Republic had converted into a military outpost.

The men at intelligence had set up a 3d model of the rail yard the train was docked at: three tracks that ran directly through the center of the station, barbed wire gates and walls, and possible roaming patrols.

"Lookout towers, anti-aircraft guns, and machine guns," Guy said.

"Oh my," Sasuke said.

"Oh my is right," Neji said, "They've got almost every area covered."

"Only one car through the gates at a time, which requires correct I.D., and I'm sure none of us can sneak through there in a car fit for a goblin," Guy said.

"Can't HALO in because of the searchlights and the anti-aircraft guns," Neji said.

"What about over the wall here," Sasuke asked as he pointed at the east wall, "We can make a helicopter insertion a few miles out, take a few blankets, and law them over the wire."

"Not a terrible idea," Neji said.

"The only question is how do we get out," Guy said.

"We could set a few charges along the outer wall," Neji said, "Blast a hole big enough for us to run out of."

"No, too obvious," Guy said, "They discover the charge, we get caught. And those walls are a foot and a half of concrete and rebar, it'd take too long to set up those charges."

"Then why don't we go with the obvious," Sasuke asked as he pointed at the train, "We're going to blow it up anyway, so why not use it as our escape strategy? We can use the emplacements on the train to defend ourselves if we run into trouble, and if we get far enough away we can make sure they can never use it again."

"I think we can attempt that," Guy said, "Nice thinking there Uchiha."

"The only question is if any of us know how to pilot a train," Neji said.

"I bet Rock could help us with that one," Sasuke said, "The stuff he digs up is like downloading information in the Matrix."

"Then I guess we need to decide on what positions to take up," Guy said.

_Back at the bunks_…

Shino knew it was past three in the morning back in Chicago, but right about now, he wanted to send a message to his family.

As dialed the phone, he knew no one was going to answer, but when it went to voicemail, he heard the voice he wanted to hear for a while, his daughter.

"Hello, you've reached the Aburame Household," the recorded message said, "We are unable to answer your call, but if you leave your name and number, we'll call you right back. Thank you."

"Hey you two," Shino said, "I know that it's a little late, but I wanted to tell you two that we're doing just fine, and that I miss you two already. Right about now, I know you'll both be off to school and work, but I wanted to leave you a small message. I love you, and I'll see you again when we get home."

_How's that_…


End file.
